Ridiculous Study of the Month I: Genetic Dosing For Coumadin

Docs like me hate having to give Coumadin. Not because it doesn't work, but because it is a total crap shoot. Patients who have artificial heart valves or atrial fibrillation need this medication to keep their blood thin and toprevent strokes. A recent study shows that a new genetic test on these patients may help determine a better dosing scheduling. I was first excited to hear about this but further inspection proves that this is a shot in the dark as well. The study was only done on 5,700 people and "proved accurate in setting the dose in about 1 out of 3 warfarin users". Well, that doesn't sound great. The researchers in the study had also received consulting fees and grants by companies involved in genetic testing. This is getting worse. And how about the cost for the genetic testing? Who is going to pay for that? Here is a better study. Let's take a monkey throwing darts at balloons with dosages inside those balloons and see if he gets it right? I bet if you compare my dart-trained monkeys to the genetic testing that I would be as good if not better. Then people would have to pay to use my monkeys and I would finally get rich and take over the world. Sorry, I got a little carried away there.