Move along, nothing to see from the government’s failure as to cancer treatment clinical trials.
The clinical treatment system run by the National Cancer Institute has become so burdened with bureaucracy and paperwork that even the Editors of The New York Times are complaining (emphasis mine):
The nation’s most important system for judging the clinical effectiveness of cancer treatments is approaching “a state of crisis.” That is the disturbing verdict of experts assembled by the National Academy of Sciences to review the performance of clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute….
The most shocking deficiency highlighted by the report, issued by the academy’s Institute of Medicine, is that about 40 percent of all advanced clinical trials sponsored by the Cancer Institute are never completed. That is an incredible waste of effort and money, and a huge obstacle at a time when researchers are developing promising new therapies that must be rigorously tested….
So it is especially worrying to hear the experts say that the system — run by the Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health — is so mired in cumbersome procedures that it needs to be completely overhauled….
Yet a series of reviews in recent years found that the testing operation is mired in bureaucracy and poorly coordinated. A typical trial must navigate past dozens of overlapping reviews by different boards and agencies that must approve the original concept for the trial and then the protocol that will govern how it is conducted before the investigators can start enrolling any patients.
These are the same Editors of The New York Times who want government to regulate all aspects of health care, which is what will happen under Obamacare.
Under the legislation passed by the Democrats, there will be dozens of new commissions and boards created, and virtually every section of the legislation requires that new regulations be promulgated. The paperwork burden on the health care system will be staggering.
The Institute of Medicine found that a complete overhaul of the clinical trial system was necessary (emphasis mine):
Improved treatments for cancer will be delayed and patient lives will be lost unnecessarily unless the efficiency and effectiveness of the clinical trials system improves. The implementation of the report’s collective recommendations will reinvigorate the NCI Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program and strengthen its position as a critical component of the translational pathway from scientific discovery to improved treatment outcomes for patients with cancer. Modifying any single element of the Program or the clinical trials process will not suffice; changes across the board are urgently needed.
I do not dispute the necessity of the National Cancer Institute; it is important to coordinate studies and to inject a measure of scientific neutrality into clinical testing.
But given how government bureaucracy has failed on this small scale, why would we expect any different result when the government regulates the entire health care system?
The problem will be even worse than experienced with the National Cancer Institute because the bureaucracies under Obamacare will be dispersed throughout hundreds of aspects of health care, making it impossible for organizations like the Institute of Medicine to keep track of it all.
We are being set up for failure on a “historic” scale by people who refuse to see the obvious, or who see it but do not care.
——————————————–
Related Posts:
10,000 Unnecessary Cancer Deaths (in Britain)
Nothing Wrong With Nationalized Health Care, Move Along
Health Care Whistleblowers Gagged — In Britain
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY