I am a pre-med student doing an internship for a new online resource for patients, www.rateadrug.com. This site contains user-generated information about the efficacy and the side effects of many different drugs as well as supplments and alternative and herbal medications.
The site, which is not affiliated with any drug companies or research firms, was created in response to several recent studies indicating that pharmaceutical companies are having unacceptable influence over the trials of their drugs. The American Journal of Psychiatry found that drug trials favor the patent-holder 90% of the time. And, according to a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, drug trials are easily and often rigged (http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n20.shtml).
It's no shock that the pharmaceutical industry is pushing their drugs on patients without adequate and fair testing. But in the face of this, it is important for us to be proactive.
Rate A Drug, allows users to anonymously submit information about their experiences with drugs, via specialized surveys, to get their personal score report showing the efficacy of the drug relative to the negative and positive effects. This information is aggregated on the main page for the drug, where you can find the average occurence of side effects and the average efficacy of the drug.
Please check out the site if it sounds worthwhile. And if you do complete a survey, please indicate that you heard about the site from a "PPREP Student Intern" and type in my alias KAS85 so that I can get credit. Thank you for your time.
-Kam
I am a pre-med student doing an internship for a new online resource for patients, www.rateadrug.com. This site contains user-generated information about the efficacy and the side effects of many different drugs as well as supplments and alternative and herbal medications.
The site, which is not affiliated with any drug companies or research firms, was created in response to several recent studies indicating that pharmaceutical companies are having unacceptable influence over the trials of their drugs. The American Journal of Psychiatry found that drug trials favor the patent-holder 90% of the time. And, according to a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, drug trials are easily and often rigged (http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n20.shtml).
It's no shock that the pharmaceutical industry is pushing their drugs on patients without adequate and fair testing. But in the face of this, it is important for us to be proactive.
Rate A Drug, allows users to anonymously submit information about their experiences with drugs, via specialized surveys, to get their personal score report showing the efficacy of the drug relative to the negative and positive effects. This information is aggregated on the main page for the drug, where you can find the average occurence of side effects and the average efficacy of the drug.
Please check out the site if it sounds worthwhile. And if you do complete a survey, please indicate that you heard about the site from a "PPREP Student Intern" and type in my alias KAS85 so that I can get credit. Thank you for your time.
-Kam