The Wall Street Journal published on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023 a fascinating excerpt from Amy Dockser Marcus’s new book “We the Scientists: How a Daring Team of Parents and Doctors Forged a New Path for Medicine“, just published by Riverhead Books.
For those who have been in the field of public health for a while, attempting to foster greater access to treatments, drugs, and research for Hepatitis C, HIV, and other diseases, this book is a welcome spotlight on the increasing role of patients, families, and other non-professionals to help guide institutions, governments, and pharma.
Every one of our board, and many of our collaborators, have been fighting this fight for years.
The article itself is worth a read if you can find a copy.
Just one item may bring back memories: the fight to get the USA FDA to use “Surrogate Data Markers” in its drug approval process – in other words, not simply relying on whether a drug could be proven to extend life, but also taking account quality of life improvements.
As many of our community are currently involved in this type of battle, and fostering increased public participation in every facet of medicine, public health, and drug development, I’m sure we will soon see other articles about this topic here.
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