Medical research is too slow—and there’s a reason.

 

That reason is an oversight program known as the Institutional Review Board system. These IRBs, which exist at every hospital and medical school that conducts medical research, impose such stringent conditions that research is damaged, delayed, and distorted. The covid-19 vaccines were a rare exception, for they were developed at warp speed, but medical research in every other area is kept at horse and buggy speed.

 

This is a crisis, and it is unknown to the public. True, there is a vigorous debate underway about the IRB system’s failures, but it has been hidden away in specialty journals in medicine, law, and ethics. It’s time for the public to be informed about what is wrong—and what can be done about it.

 

Simon Whitney, MD, JD is ideally suited to bring this crisis before the public. He obtained his medical degree from New York University, his law degree from Stanford, and his certificate in medical ethics, following a one-year fellowship, also at Stanford. He was on the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine for twenty-two years, and is now emeritus but still active.