Floating around the medical scene fairly recently is the concept of
Evidence based medicine
and that most medical methods currently used are founded on it.
a google search on it evidence based medicine
shows -About 44,300,000 results
and it even has its own wikipedia page
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a form of medicine that aims to optimize decision-making by emphasizing the use of evidence from well designed and conducted research.
thus it is a bit of a celebrity with many followers
sort of like the facebook version of medicine,
attention seeking, probably not adding anything of note and all the cool kids are using it, because well designed research
but, like many celebrities nowadays is it mostly marketing? is it a meme and how much substance does it have?
disclosure here, i won an research award and got published internationally on my first attempt, but will call out nonsense if i see it
For me the term medicine by itself implies a scientific basis
thus the term “Evidence based medicine” is redundant
Medicine is medicine and a branch of science in its own right
comedians -philosophers of our times often put it best
so the word medicine by itself also implies effectiveness or at least it should
So we must use this evidence based concept heaps in training our doctors? right hmm maybe
think about all the different types of medical education we expose our doctors to
case presentations, morbidity and mortality meetings, simulation studies will form a huge proportion of how doctors are taught and guess what its all anecdotal
you would be scratching your head to find evidence based teaching tools but here is one, literature reviews
so we market the concept of evidence based medicine but rarely use it as a teaching tool
thus essentially reject it despite of what we tell others
funnily enough little brother anecdotal
shows his face a lot more
in this wiki page it mentions cherry picking and bias but is not cherry picking just another term for specificity a term we doctors actually love
On a different note, think about the mentors you had and respected in the medical field.
They may have had humour, empathy, coolness under pressure and many more positive traits but one of the main reasons you respect them is effectiveness.
Guess what?, they were not taught and and did not practise in the “evidence based medicine” era, are you now going to reject your medical idols, Hell no.
How many lives did Georgios Papanicolau save with his pap smear?
and isn’t saved lives and reduced morbidity the best medical evidence on can have
Dont get me wrong, medical research and studies have, are and will always be an intricate part of medicine
Because medicine is a science and research is an integral part of scientific method
but one cannot reject other types of efficacy reviews such as case studies, morbidity and mortality meetings that we use to gain clinical acumen and modify and enhance our clinical practise
Medicine is a science and is founded by evidence drawn from many different areas, from big picture massive randomised double blind trials to the specific focus of a case review
They are just different ways to view an issue
From big picture to focusing on the small details helps you see a lot
Medicine doesn’t need new marketing gimmicks memes or jingos
Medicine is medicine
iero7 