The NIH MFM Network: How Science Gets Done

Host: Michael Benson, MD Guest: Catherine Spong, MD In the 1950's the standard treatment for premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome was 100% oxygen. An estimated 10,000 babies were blinded before the dangers of high oxygen treatment were fully understood. As physicians, many of us are only too aware that we still provide some treatments to patients because that's "the way we always have done it" or because "that is the way we were trained." In this segment, Dr. Spong describes some of the methodologies used to actually test the safety and efficacy of different treatment protocols to learn what works best.