In his presentation to the Personal Injury Protection Plan (PIPP) Review Committee, Dr. Cote explains the scientific approach he used to determine the association between claim closure and recovery(3). He states that this approach included a study of Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) claimants because "Saskatchewan is a nice province. There's one million residents. There's one insurance company." Also, he states that "the health status must be measured with accurate questions. Asking someone in research are you better... is not useful... So what I'd like to emphasize now is that what I'm presenting is truly the story of the people who gave us data... Then the data must be analyzed with gold standard methods."

Dr. Cote's scientific approach to determine the association between claim closure and recovery has no common sense since it is ridiculous to measure the health status of claimants with accurate questions when the same health status is not an absolute entity and it is not necessarily supported with physical evidence; it is ridiculous to present the story of the people who gave the data when these same people have been abused and taken away their human rights; it is ridiculous to analyze the data with gold standard methods, when there is no 'gold standard' either in today's knowledge economy(4)(5) or in statistical research(6).

My concluding comment to Dr. Cote's presentation is that he has a mind set going back to the gold standard and it cannot be otherwise when you think that the nice province of Saskatchewan gave him gold: over one million dollars to entertain this research.

Endnotes

1. The system is not more worth than one person's rights, by Mario deSantis, July 27, 2000

2. The Incredible Abuse of Saskatchewan No-Fault Insurance, by Mario deSantis, May 31, 2000

3. Transcipts of DR. R. RUSSELL , DR. D. CASSIDY, and DR. P. COTE at the PIPP review hearings http://www.angelfire.com/nf/coalitionagainstnf/PIPP.htm

4. An excerpt from Intellectual Capital, by Thomas Stewart, Doubleday/Currency, March 1997, page 15: "Money has been changing from a standard unit of value--a fixed and limited asset, a substantial and absolute truth--into something ethereal, volatile, and electronic... Money is now an image"

5. The New Economy and reflections on the meeting of August 10/98 with Timothy (Tim) Shire, by Mario deSantis, August 16/98

6. Famous quote by Albert Einstein "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted"

The picture with today's article show the true gold standard of a sunset as seen Thursday August 3rd East of Neepawa, Manitoba.