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Robert S. Gordon, Jr. Lecture in Epidemiology

2016 Awardee

Portrait picture of Dr. Bracken
Michael Bracken, Ph.D., M.P.H., FACE

Yale School of Public Health

 

Lecture Title

Inefficiency and Waste in Biomedical Research: How Prevalent Is It, What Are Its Causes, and How Is It Prevented?

View this Lecture
April 20, 2016

About this Lecture

It has been estimated that over $200 billion is spent worldwide annually on biomedical research, but that as much as 85% 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 these topics in detail and were updated in this lecture. The presentation focused 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 were discussed.

About Dr. Bracken

Michael Bracken, Ph.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.E., is the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science, and Professor of Neurology at Yale University School of Public Health. He is a former Head of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at Yale, and former Vice Chairman (Deputy Dean) of the Yale School of Public Health, where he has studied and taught for the last 44 years. He is a sometime Research Fellow in Green Templeton College, Oxford University. Professor Bracken has published some 380 articles in the scientific literature and has authored three books, including: Perinatal Epidemiology (1984) and Effective Care of the Newborn Infant (with J.C. Sinclair, 1992), both published by Oxford University Press. In 2006, his last book, which introduced the concepts of meta-analysis into neonatology, was named by the British Medical Journal as one of the most influential books in evidence-based medicine and was instrumental in assisting the foundation of the international Cochrane Collaboration. Professor Bracken’s new book: Risk, Chance, and Causation: Investigating the Origins and Treatment of Disease was published by Yale University Press in 2013. He is the founding Director of the Yale Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (in 1979) and Co-Director of its successor, the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology. Professor Bracken has taught courses in evidence-based medicine and health care, pharmaco-epidemiology, perinatal epidemiology, and general epidemiology at Yale for many years. He has directed numerous epidemiological investigations, almost all of which were funded (over $50 million in total) by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Professor Bracken has served on numerous study sections and committees of the NIH, including the Council of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. He chaired the first Congress of Epidemiology in 2001 and the first international colloquium on genome-wide association studies in 2006. Professor Bracken consults for many international corporations and agencies, including the World Health Organization, and he has served as the elected President of two major epidemiological organizations: the American College of Epidemiology and the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Professor Bracken is the 2013 recipient of the Lilienfeld Award from the American College of Epidemiology.

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