Biomedical research: increasing value, reducing waste

Robert S. Gordon Jr. Lecture | Wednesday, April 20, 2016 | 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET

Michael B. Bracken, Ph.D., MPH, FACE

Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases) and Professor of Neurology and of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences

Co-Director, Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology

Yale School of Public Health

michael.bracken@yale.edu

Website

Summary

More than $200 billion is spent worldwide annually on biomedical research but estimates suggest as much as 85 percent may be wasted. What are the determinants of research waste, and is such a high figure justified? A series of five papers in The Lancet (January 8, 2014) introduced this topic in detail and is updated in this lecture. This presentation focuses on redundancy and duplication of research hypotheses, research designs that cannot reliably test hypotheses, publication bias, and irreproducibility. Solutions for reducing waste and increasing value are discussed.