Evidence Based Medicine Is Doublethink

Evidence Based Medicine. Is it just doublethink, like "oxygen based air"?
Or is it an sickly-named method?

It is not the epidemiological data of EBM that I question, but rather the manner in which it is used to displace clinical judgment. The physician has taken the history, performed the physical, reviewed the labs, and discussed the illness with the patient and family. He knows the patient's wishes, desires, and values. All this critical information must be considered when treating patients.

EBM, by contrast, relies primarily on epidemiological data, which it uses in a way that preempts all other information collected by the treating physician. In fact, non-quantifiable information such as the patient's values and the physician's clinical experience are not even taken into account in EBM.

It is absurd to think that a third party, operating at a distance in time and space from the patient being treated, is able to make a better medical decision than the treating physician and therefore should be allowed to preempt the treating physician's decisions.


from article, "Evidence-Based Medicine vs. Patients"



Exploiting over-regulation? See my last post.









Now here it is, your url of the day:
Publius Enigma