Experimental studies are critical to advancing medical treatments and drugs, however recent statistics have shown that the senior population is underrepresented. Seniors are often omitted from controlled testing because of complicated health conditions or for fear they will increase the risk of side effects.
In a recent New York Times article, Stanford researchers Dr. Donna Zulman and Dr. Keith Humphreys write, “As clinicians who care for older patients ourselves, we want to make sure that we’re giving them the best treatment possible. But we can’t do that if we don’t have evidence for what works and what doesn’t.”