What was the fuss about the Alzheimer's Trial tampering and FDA thing in Grey's anatomy, I don't get it. Even if they keep it a secret how would it change the effects? Can anyone please explain.
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5I don't watch this show, so I can't really judge if this is informative enough, but I think it wouldn't hurt to add more details, especially the episode number(s).– Chanandler BongSep 27, 2016 at 9:53
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1 Answer
There are a few issues with what Meredith did, most of which make the trial and all of their work invalid.
- Clinical/Drug trials are supposed to be bias-free, by having Meredith swap the envelopes and changing who gets the drug, she is altering the trial's outcome because of her bias towards the patient.
- In the first place, relatives to the person running the trial(s) can and should not be on it, or in any way involved in it. (Meredith being the wife of the man running the trial, she should have never been allowed to help in the first place.)
- A large part of these trials is the placebo effect. If you're manipulating who gets the drug and somehow that gets out, you can alter that effect, again invalidating the trial.
Some more information about the issues with this trial vs the real world. This being a standout piece of information:
"But there is a crucial difference between the real world and the TV version. In the real trial, Grill says, the doctors who administer the injections aren't involved in assessing whether the treatment worked. Those assessments are made by doctors who don't know which patients got the drug, so that their clinical judgment isn't influenced — even subconsciously — by the knowledge that a patient did or didn't receive the treatment, he says."
