1.) THE MEDICAL ACADEMIC COMMUNITY: WHERE TRUTH IS AN OPTIONAL EXTRA.
How did we get to the point that falsifying the medical literature is acceptable? How did an industry whose products have contributed to astounding advances in global health over the past several decades come to accept such practices as the norm? Whatever the reasons, as the pipeline for new drugs dries up and companies increasingly scramble for an ever-diminishing proportion of the market in “me-too” drugs, the medical publishing and pharmaceutical industries and the medical academic community have become locked into a cycle of mutual dependency, in which truth and a lack of bias have come to be seen as optional extras.
2.) A LOSS OF THAT CERTAIN QUALITY.
Professor Larry Van Sickle, who teaches sociology [at Rollins College] … has no specific rules except that the computer just be used for note taking, but also says, “There is something to be said for person-to-person communication. The way I run my classes, discussion is important, and when a student is hiding behind a laptop, there is a loss of that certain quality of human conversation.”