Data reveals all kinds of interesting things. For example, did you know that you get almost identical results from telling a person he had surgery to remove arthritis from his knee as if you actually did the surgery? If that doesn’t blow your mind just a little bit, I don’t know what will. Of course, all research needs data, evidence to back it up. That is the case no matter what you are looking into, whether you are researching the placebo effect or investigating the effectiveness of the new COVID vaccines. Unfortunately, that data get skewed all the time, or even ignored.
Sadly, even medicine gets tied up in politics and lobbying for kickbacks, or doctors doing things just because that’s what he was taught or that’s what is normal in his region. Think of the debate raging over masks right now. It often has little to do with evidence and has instead become more a symbol of political affiliation than anything else. And when evidence is brought up, you can use the specific evidence a given person brings up to predict their politics with a disturbing amount of accuracy.
Then there are the stories of doctors prescribing certain medicines over others simply because they get more of a kickback from the manufacturer. Or less scary is the tendency of hospitals to order a whole barrage of unnecessary tests “to be safe”. In many cases, they just know they can charge the insurance company. They are recommending unnecessary tests for the purpose of generating more revenue. And of course doctors tend to get used to prescribing certain medicines and treatments based only on a recommendation from fellow doctors.
Now, you might be looking at all of that and thinking that all of these practices are missing the point of what medicine is supposed to be all about. You would be right. Medicine is supposed to be both about helping people get better when they are sick and even to prevent them from getting sick in the first place. That takes doctors, scientists, and others interested not primarily in financial gain but in helping others. And those people need a good source of reliable data that can be honed and refined free of any agenda.
Where does one get such data though? Often, the people on the ground have to rely on data from major companies interested in proving the efficacy of their own drugs. The temptation for researchers at those companies to manipulate their results is great due to pressure from their bosses. So, how do we fix that problem?
TARTLE’s data marketplace is primed to act as a neutral third party in helping researchers and people on the ground gather valuable, agenda-free data direct from the source. Naturally, it is still possible for major firms to manipulate their research results. However, independent groups and doctors on the ground will often conduct (or wish they could) their own research to find out if the treatments they prescribe are effective. For that, they can turn to TARTLE. If they are looking for specific information, they can put the request out there to TARTLE’s members and get quality data from real people. This allows them to ask follow up questions or check up on people whenever they may need, or even subscribe to members’ data and get updates in real time.
This allows medical practitioners a great deal of flexibility as they can develop unique treatments for people with common genetic make ups or even adjust for regional differences in the environment.
TARTLE’s marketplace can still work well for the big companies too. Consider the race to find a COVID vaccine. The very nature of its development means that it will be important to continue tracking those who get it for years to come. By getting full access to individuals, instead of partial access to multiple groups it is possible to cross reference a host of variables in genetics, habits, and environment that would not be possible otherwise. All at a lower cost than what would be paid by going through a traditional data aggregator.
Unvarnished, agenda-free source data at your fingertips to help people help others. That’s the TARTLE mission and promise.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
