6 ms·
As I wrote in another reply, evidence based medicine (EBM) = population, intervention, comparison and outcome (PICO). In other words, PICO = RCT Randomized Cont
by raincom 3y ago
As I wrote in another reply, evidence based medicine (EBM) = population, intervention, comparison and outcome (PICO). In other words, PICO = RCT Randomized Control Trials. To me, EBM is medical instrumentalism (as instrumentalism is one of philosophies of sciences): pick a treatment that works for a large number of people, without understanding the underlying mechanism. Even today, we use many drugs with unknown mechanisms of action (MOA).
- haldujai 3y agoI would add that EBM took over because science-based medicine (at least the historical definition, how it's used now is more of a hybrid) didn't work out too well. Often the mechanism thought to be understood is incorrect or more complicated and the outcomes don't correlate well with what's expected, sometimes resulting in significant harm. Fundamentally, the mechanism of why a medical intervention works isn't that important if you're thoroughly evaluating outcome measures and controlling confounders.