Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has become a required element of clinical practice, but it is critical for the healthcare community to understand the ongoing controversy surrounding EBM. Seeking to address questions raised by critics, The Philosophy of Evidence-based Medicine challenges the over dependency of EBM on randomized controlled trials. This book also explores EBM methodology and its relationship with other approaches used in medicine. The controversy surrounding the significance of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in clinical practice, far from abating, has grown and developed a momentum of its own.

This book examines the arguments for and against EBM being a new paradigm in medicine, and puts together the most coherent and compelling case as to how and why its rigor should be applied to every facet of patient care; discussing the questions often raised by critics of evidence-based medicine:

• Why should EBM dominate health care, from daily medical practice to funding treatments?
• Is it truly objective?
• Do we need randomized trials for treatments that are universally accepted as effective?
• Does EBM serve the needs of individual patients?
• What part do basic sciences play in EBM?
• Are randomized trials more important than clinical experts?

Students of evidence-based medicine, researchers and those studying the philosophy of science or medicine will find this detailed treatise an invaluable reference to the development of EBM, from recognition of the validity of randomized controlled trials to today's more patient-centred approach.

Titles of Related Interest

Clinical Thinking: Evidence, Communication and Decision-Making
Chris Del Mar, Jenny Doust, Paul P. Glasziou
ISBN: 978-0-7279-1741-6

Evidence-based Decisions and Economics: Health care, social welfare, education and criminal justice, 2nd Edition
Ian Shemilt, Miranda Mugford, Luke Vale, Kevin Marsh and Cam Donaldson
ISBN 978-1-4051-9153-1