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They test, you live: Medical studies need human participants to generate new treatments and cures

Noted: New technologies, especially minimally invasive technologies, present another problem, said Dr. K. Craig Kent, chair of the Surgery Department at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. When a technology is new and looks like a panacea, everyone wants it and resists being randomly assigned to the comparison group receiving the standard treatment. That desire wanes only after a couple of years when the inevitable drawbacks begin to manifest.