Heaven forbid that someone discover a new cure for something by good old fashion trial and error and not full-blown, multimillion dollar, FDA approved controlled trials. From Brian C. Joondeph, MD, at americanthinker.com:
Anecdotal evidence is based on a real-life event, perhaps just a single occurrence. In medicine and science, much current knowledge began with an anecdote. A famous example occurred in 1928, when Sir Alexander Fleming happened to observe that mold developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate, and that the mold prevented growth of the bacteria.
This led to the discovery of penicillin, saving countless lives, based on anecdotal evidence of bacteria not growing near a spot of mold. With World War II creating injuries, infections, and sepsis, penicillin was produced in mass, preserving lives and limbs.
Another more recent example comes from my world of retina surgery. An anti-cancer drug, Avastin, was injected into the eyes of a few patients with advanced macular degeneration. These few patients responded well, anecdotally. After this breakthrough was reported at a retina meeting, it almost immediately became the new treatment standard worldwide.
There were no prospective, randomized clinical trials, considered the gold standard, just the anecdotal observation that this off label treatment worked and saved vision. Despite being the most commonly used treatment for macular degeneration, Avastin is still not FDA approved for this indication.
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