| Summary: | No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. A recent article by Prasad et al. (1) in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings reviewed all original articles published over 10 years (2001-2010) in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Articles were classified on the basis of whether they addressed a medical practice, whether they tested a new or existing therapy, and whether results were positive or negative. Most striking was that of the 363 articles examining standards of care, 146 (40.2%) reversed that practice, whereas 138 (38.0%) reaffirmed it. The remaining percentage remained inconclusive. As pointed out in an accompanying editorial, the NEJM is widely read, has high visibility and has a large influence on the mass media and medical practitioners (2). However, the effect of articles published in the NEJM, Lancet and JAMA, the top 3 general medical journals in terms of impact factor, are markedly inflated (3,4). Presumably, a randomized trial published in these journals must be …
|
|---|
