Episode 77: John Ioannidis discusses why most published research findings are false

Our guest today is Dr. John Ioannidis, a Stanford professor who has been described by “BMJ” as “the scourge of sloppy science.” Atlantic magazine has gone so far as to refer to him as one of the world’s most influential scientists.

John is renowned for his 2005 paper, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” which has been viewed more than 2.5 million times and is the most citied article in the history of the journal PLoS Medicine. He has authored nearly a thousand academic papers and has served on the editorial board of 30 top-tier journals.

At Stanford, John is a professor of medicine, of health research and policy, and of biomedical data science in the school of medicine as well as a professor of statistics in the school of humanities and sciences. He is the co-director of the university’s Meta-Research Innovation Center and the former director of the Stanford Prevention Research Center.

In today’s wide-ranging interview, John talks about:

[00:07:43] What led him to begin questioning the reliability of medical research during his residency at Harvard.

[00:12:03] His 2005 paper, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.”

[00:26:27] How a major issue facing science is a lack of replication.

[00:30:51] Which studies are worse, nutritional studies or drug studies.

[00:38:25] If it’s possible to remove sampling biases like the healthy user bias.

[00:46:50] The need for scientists to disclose their personal dietary biases as well as their personal diets when publishing research findings.

[00:52:40] His recent paper, “Evidence Based Medicine Has Been Hijacked,” which argues that vested interests have transformed clinical medicine into something that resembles finance-based medicine.

[00:55:36] The impact that funding pressure is having on the veracity of research being done today.

[01:08:42] The need for future research to be designed by scientists without vested interests.

[01:14:58] The ways John would fix the system if he had magic wand.

[01:18:42] And as a bonus, John reads an excerpt from his latest book.

Show notes:

[00:02:37] Dawn begins the interview asking John about being born in New York but raised in Athens.

[00:03:54] John talks about how his parents were physicians and researchers and how they instilled in him a love for mathematics at an early age.

[00:05:26] Dawn asks John about winning the Greek Mathematical Society’s national award when he was 19 years old.

[00:06:23] John talks about his decision to go to medical school and to attend Harvard.

[00:07:43] Ken mentions that John began questioning the reliability of medical school during his residency at Harvard, and asks John to talk about his interest in an “evidence-based medicine” movement that was gathering momentum at the time.

[00:08:47] Dawn asks John about his work with the late Tom Chalmers, who played a major role in the development of randomized controlled trials.

[00:09:58] John talks about returning to Greece to take a position at the University of Ioannina.

[00:12:03] John talks about his 2005 paper “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” which became the single most-cited and downloaded paper in the history of the journal PLoS Medicine.

[00:15:32] Dawn mentions that when the paper came out, it was theoretical model. She asks John to talk about how now there are a number of studies pointing out problems with preclinical research on drug targets.

[00:17:34] Dawn asks John about his decision to leave the University of Ioannina to take a position at Stanford University.

[00:21:02] Dawn asks John for his thoughts on ways to improve the peer-review process.

[00:24:09] John talks about how he and his colleagues have found that most medical information that doctors rely on is flawed.

[00:26:27] Dawn points out that a major issue facing science is a lack of replication. She talks about how funding for repeat studies is hard to come by and that ma...