Evidence-based medicine: useful tools for decision making

[gusl]

What a revolutionary idea!

Jonathan C Craig, Les M Irwig and Martin R Stockler - Evidence-based medicine: useful tools for decision making

# Evidence-based medicine (EBM) integrates clinical experience and patient values with the best available research information.
# There are four steps in incorporating the best available research evidence in decision making: asking answerable questions; accessing the best information; appraising the information for validity and relevance; and applying the information to patient care.
# Applying EBM to individual patients requires drawing up a balance sheet of benefits and harms based on research and individual patient data.
# The most realistic and efficient use of EBM by clinicians at the point of care involves accessing and applying valid and relevant summaries of research evidence (evidence-based guidelines and systematic reviews).
# The future holds promise for improved primary research, better EBM summaries, greater access to these summaries, and better implementation systems for evidence-based practice.
# Computer-assisted decision support tools for clinicians facilitate integration of individual patient data with the best available research data.

I am not mocking the authors. I am mocking the fact that people actually need to be told this.
As this site explains, it's a question of critical thinking. If doctors were properly educated, this would be nothing new.

MIT has a clinical decision-making group.

Google seems yield interesting results.

Comments

[jbouwens.livejournal.com]

I am actually convinced that diagnosis of illnesses can be done more reliably by an automated system than by a human doctor, if only people were willing to let a machine perform such a critical task.

A doctor can only home in on an existing problem by asking questions, and interpreting the answers. Computers are good at processing massive amounts of data quickly.

In my ideal world, everybody would show up at an MRI facility twice a year, get a scan, and a computer would scrutinize the results to see if anything weird can be found. We already do something similar for our teeth precisely because it can be done quickly, comprehensively and cheaply. If the same could be done for our entire body, we should to it too.