The ongoing debate over the use of statins has been covered extensively in the mainstream media. Recently, Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, has expressed concern that the lack of resolution to debates such as this is damaging public confidence in medicine. In response, Davies concluded that what is needed is “an authoritative independent report looking at how society should judge the safety and efficacy of drugs as an intervention.” As a result, the Academy of Medical Sciences has begun a working group project on Evaluating evidence. The aim of the project is to “explore how evidence that originates from different sources (e.g. randomised clinical trials and observational data) are used to make decisions about the safety and efficacy of drugs and medical interventions.”
