In Treatments but not effect

Evidence-based medicine is an important advance, although it can be a double-edged sword.When the evidence base applies, we should use it, and it reasonable for Medicare and other payers to insist on it. It is critical, however, to appreciate that there will always be patients for whom there is no evidence. They may so differ demographically from study participants from which the guidelines derive that it is doubtful as to whether guidelines are relevant. Or they may have conditions, such as rare diseases, for which there is no evidence band likely never will be.
In the early throes of a heart attack,the stunned heart often beats quickly and forcefully. For decades doctors have administered “beta-blockers” as a remedy, to reduce consumption of limited oxygen supplies by calming and slowing the straining heart.Giving these drugs in the early stages of a heart attack represents elegant medical ideology.
But it doesn’t work.
Include with these the common medical “wisdom” surrounding childbirth. Standard hospital practice gives you MORE of a chance of complications and ultimately a c-section.We should be thinking about our own medical care, doing our own research, and not just trusting some doctor to know best.
We must avoid the trap of those patients being shut out of care for lack of evidence.