Solution

Don’t be too excited. I’m not going to say there are solutions for medicine as such – but there are for those working in this field.

Oh, when it comes to survival – I do not mean the patient – we all become very creative.

One of the strategies that we have is to make use of the advance in technology.

You know what. When something new is measured – by say, a digital gadget for 5-dimension monitoring of molecular movement that we borrow from Nintendo – we can start a new round of exercise. You have a (possible) new treatment ? Good, let's do a trial for 2 weeks and measure the change with our new toy. (If there are many parameters measurable, it is even better !)

Why don't we use the traditional outcome (say, mortality) ? Simple. It needs many subjects and takes ages. Don't you know there is a group from Pluto called "Research Assessment Exercise" ? They come and visit you - to audit your publication output - every three years.

Your career succumbs before your patients.