Caricature of "Big Pharma" Doctor mixing a compound with Death whispering in his ear
Over the past several days a huge controversy has developed over a new set of "guidelines" for lowering of cholesterol along with a "calculator" meant "to help doctors to assess risks" [1] in their patients need to take statin drugs i.e. Lipitor, Crestor et al.
The "guidelines" and "calculator" were developed and their findings published by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology last week.
It appears two Harvard Medical School professors, Dr. Paul M. Ridker and Dr. Nancy Cook took issue with the published report having pointed out problems they saw a year earlier that the "calculator" sent to them to review "was not working among populations it was tested on by the guideline makers".
Apparently the earlier problems discovered by the two Harvard professors were never passed on to the researchers working up the "guidelines".
So when Ridker and Cook saw the final "guidelines" and "calculator" in final form last week they realized the problems they found earlier remained.
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