Rakesh,
Good question. But maybe there are two questions: how appropriate is
opinion? and how influential is it? The first is tricky and relates
to the "horses for courses" discussion in previous weeks. Personal
opinion, cases studies, and qualitative research can all tell us that
*some* people have a particular experience, but can't quantify it and
(unless dramatic) can't establish causal relationships. So it can
provide good evidence that *somebody* likes mangoes (I love them!)
and give us a flavour of some peoples experience, but can't establish
therapeutic effect (whether the green or blue pill works best). So it
should be selectively influential. But in practice stories are very
influential, and unfortunately often more influential than high
quality evidence. So I often begin the presentation of a trial or
systematic review result with a single case history, and then move to
the quantified (but less influential) evidence,
Cheers
Paul Glasziou
At 07/10/2005, Rakesh Biswas wrote:
>This one-day workshop is intended to serve as an introduction to
>evidence-based practice and after the workshop participants should be able to:
>1. forumulate an answerable question
>2. track down the best evidence
>3. do rapid critical appraisal of controlled trials
>4. apply the evidence to individuals' care
>5. evaluate the effectiveness and efficience of your educational process.
>
>Quotes from previous participants:
>
>"My first contact with EBM; very useful beginning"
>"Clarified a number of issues, motivated to learn more!"
>
>How often does our decision making get influenced by quoted personal
>opinion? I am afraid this question proves that I haven't learnt to
>formulate answerable questions (rather showing a tendency to
>formulate embarassing ones) and I could do with some training (sound
>drubbing more like it!).
>Apologetically yours,
>Rakesh Biswas
Paul Glasziou
Department of Primary Health Care &
Director, Centre for Evidence-Based Practice, Oxford
ph: 44-1865-227055 www.cebm.net
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