 |
 |
Dear All, I read the recent editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine and thought some of the statements in it may be of interest to our group. Stross JK. Guidelines have their limits. Ann Intern Med 1999;131:304-306. The author states in the editorial "In the real world of medicine, practitioners are often required to make decisions in areas in which there are no guidelines and the available evidence is not clear cut". He further quotes from Lomas which I reproduce below. "research findings hold no special value to most practicing physicians, they are just one of the many impacts that may or may not influence the final practice decisions.... [Many] of the implications from research, although black and white to the researcher, are not immediately compelling to the practitioner, whose clinical decision making therefore continues as if he or she were in the discretionary gray area'. I was struck by the statement "research findings hold no special value to most practicing physicians..." as this goes against the basic philosophy of EBM i.e. accessing research findings, appraising and applying it in practice. Any views on this most welcome. Cheers, Badri Dr.P.Badrinath M.D.,M.Phil.,(Epid) PhD(Cantab) Assistant Professor and Epidemiologist, Department of Community Medicine, UAE University, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Tel: 00 971 3 5039 652 Fax: 00 971 3 672022. [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%