the cure . . . . . . . . a work in progress . . .
In the New York Times (December 18, 2004), Alex Berenson writes that
"The decline in drug research and development has been an open secret
among analysts and scientists for years." (Pricey Drug Trials Turn Up
Few Blockbusters.)
In the article Dr. K. Arnold Chan, a professor at the Harvard School
of Public Health states " There is no simple way to make drug research
more productive."
The article states further that "the amount of basic biomedical
knowledge has vastly increased in the last few years, but scientists
have not yet been able to translate that information into new
medicines."
While it may be true that there is no simple WAY to to increase
productivity of drug research, it is probable that there are simple
IDEAS that WILL advance the more complicated systems that ultimately
produce the treatments that we so long for.
Here, I'd like to propose one idea, in the hope that it will fuel the
ideas of others with the same desire to realize the reward for living
in an age of exponentially growing access to information.
As an intern at a market research Internet startup based in New York City's
Soho, part of the role of the research department was to categorize
and quantify open ended responses to various questions asked in
online surveys. The target of the surveys were aged 13 to 24, with the
median age of respondent leaning more towards the younger end of this
age spectrum. The open-ended survey questions that they regularly
answered ranged from what sort of shoes that they bought recently to
what they saw as the most important thing going on in their life at
the time. While the number of types and brands of shoes produced in
today's world is quite finite, the number of
possible response categories for a question about what is important
overall may be only as finite as the number of respondents taking the
survey. The quantity and type of response to the question "What is the
most important thing going on in your life" is more attached to the
the quantity and type of individual respondents, rather than the
quantity and type of shoes produced.
Categorizing responses to the question "What is the most important
thing going on in your life?" is an arbitrary process, but one that
leads to the pulse of the body of people being surveyed.
Until now, anecdotes may only have been marginally valuable as tools
for use in research. Say some mountain climber stumbles across a
fossil that leads to discovery and advancement in the field of
anthropology. Anthropology itself is attached, in some way or another,
to every other field of study. "One world, one hope", as reality
to this point goes. Now say that there is a system into which such
anecdotes may be fed, compiled, analyzed, recompiled, reanalyzed, ad
infinitum. I think it is already clear that this system exists. The
Internet.
Instead of a search engine, imagine a find engine. An engine that uses
everyones everyday experience as fuel. Where these different fuels are
extracted and refined, categorized and employed.
Physical anecdotes from medically treated individuals compared to
physical anecdotes from non-medically treated individuals could play a
part in the process that drives biomedical research.
Compilation of anecdotes relating to the everyday use of coal, oil,
natural gas,solar power, wind power, or wood could serve to focus
individuals and groups on simple and practical uses of renewable, and
not as renewable resources.
This is already happening in a diffuse yet powerful way.
It is time to refocus our life experiences, and create
an additional body of information tasks, indeed jobs, that will lead directly
towards the
research projects that will produce tangible successes more regularly.
Anecdote.com, Anecdote.org, Anecdote.net. Call it what you may.
It is one of the next steps.
Just now, Google is working to connect the worlds library system to
the system of the Internet.
What is suggested here, is to connect the systems of our lives to it
as well, through our invaluable experiences, compiled, analyzed,
recompiled, reanalyzed ad infinitum. The finite byproduct of such an
effort is the cure.
Thanks for reading this through.
Chet Holcomb,
Artist