The first step in the student’s guide to research
The first step in the student’s guide to research is “Frame your research question”. Defining the research question entails looking at social phenomena within the specific area of interest to the researcher then selecting an issue that requires further investigation on a what or how basis. Social phenomena is an extremely wide field, thus failure to narrow down the issue for research may cause the research to be too wide for effective investigation. Not laying down the parameters may also make it difficult to set up how the research issue can be investigated. Narrowing down the field is, therefore, necessary. Framing a question will enable the researcher to whittle away all secondary issues until only those issues that are critical to the research remain. The question can be a compound one, meaning it may have what, how, and/or why perspectives but to be able to frame the question, the issue will have been reduced into a researchable scope.
Major assumptions and bias of the drug industry that underlie drug research
Alienating sickness pain and suffering is one of the major intents of a healthcare system, including the drug industry. From a sociological perspective, it would be naïve to assume that drug companies spend millions of dollars in their research so that they can enable the creation of a healthier community. The more accurate explanation is that these drug companies are seeking to make a profit. In some cases, the companies may even be seeking to survive. When millions of dollars have been spent in developing a drug, the success of the drug may be a matter of life and death for the company just as it is for the patients who choose to take it. The main bias by the drug company lies in the fact that if they have to choose between their own death and that of a few customers, they will not choose their own death.
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The easier part of medical research is to determine whether or not a drug works as expected by a patient. This is called easy because it can be done in many ways. Indeed, even causing the death of a patient effectively ends all pain but few if any patient expects that from drugs. The harder part is to establish if over and above solving the problem, the drug causes secondary issues that might be worse than the problem solved. This is where the bias by drug companies lie. They will seek to advertise all that is good about a drug and bury what is negative about it. Research by actual experts is necessary for a drug to be licensed. Drug company bias includes carefully picking the right researchers who will mainly be focused on how effective the drug is while circumspectly ignoring the side effects.
Personal Bias Against Drug Research Sponsored by Drug Companies
There is a manifest difference between being a consumer of drugs and being a human experiment. The Nuremberg Code outlines careful parameters about the subject of human experimentation and informed consent is a major part of it. However, when a drug is licensed and later pulled out after causing thousands of deaths, those hapless victims have been used as human experiments without their knowledge. It is better when balanced research is done before any drug is exposed to the market. Researchers who have an interest in the drug company will be rooting for the drug to succeed and may even inadvertently miss adverse effects of the drug. This is the reason why researchers and drug makers must never be related. In other commodities, critical consumers can conduct their own due diligence and decide what to buy or not. Pharmacology is, however, too complicated, thus the researcher must protect the consumer from the drug company.
