Dmitri Nepogodiev

May 9, 2023 | thelancet.com | Jessamy Bagenal |Naomi Lee |Adesoji O Ademuyiwa |Dmitri Nepogodiev

“A comic opera performance” was how Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, described surgical research in 1996 when he quoted the medical statistician Major Greenwood; at the time, the most common research method was the case series and, Horton posited, much of the research surgeons undertook was misconceived.The comment struck so deeply that the phrase is still routinely quoted in surgical meetings.