Dr. Ioannidis discusses the empirical evidence for the presence and consequences of some main biases in scientific discovery. He also discusses solutions for optimizing the efficiency of the biomedical research processes. The intensified quest for scientific discovery has resulted in a flurry of research claims that represent false-positive or exaggerated results. There are many forces that create this excess of spurious significant findings, including both random error and a number of biases. Dr. Ioannidis explores all of these pertinent issues.

Dr. Ioannidis is currently the C.F. Rehnborg Professor in Disease Prevention, professor of medicine, and director of the Stanford Prevention Research Center at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has been adjunct faculty for the Tufts University School of Medicine since 1996, with the rank of professor since 2002; since 2008, he has led the Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Modeling of the Tufts Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies and the Genetics/Genomics component at the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He is also adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and visiting professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Imperial College London. Dr. Ioannidis has served as a member of the executive board of the Human Genome Epidemiology Network, president of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology, editorial board member of 26 leading international journals, and editor in chief of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation. He has published books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed papers, such as one in PLoS Medicine, "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False" (2005). He has received several awards, including the European Award for Excellence in Clinical Science for 2007, and has been inducted into the Association of American Physicians and the European Academy of Cancer Sciences. His work combines skills in clinical research methodology and evidence-based medicine with the challenges of current molecular medicine and genomics.