Personal Injury Law

Trial Lawyers - What is evidence based medicine?

By Steve Lombardi

Evidence based medicine is a medical concept that is being peddled to the legal profession, but especially the Courts as a fairer approach to deciding what evidence should or should not be admitted into evidence. It's a medical concept that some are attempting to turn into a legal concept. There are several definitions. A few are cataloged below.

There is even a Centre For Evidence-Based Medicine that is said to have been established in Oxford in 1995. "EBHC requires the integration of the best available research evidence with
our clinical expertise and our patient's unique values and circumstances."

What this all boils down to is what a medical expert is supposed to do before arriving at an opinion.

Step 1: Start with the patient or clinical problem or question that involves medicine.
Step 2: Construct a well built question derived from the case.
Step 3: Select the appropriate resources and conduct a search of the literature.
Step 4: Appraise the evidence for its validity (closeness to the truth) and applicability (usefulness in clinical practice).
Step 5: Return to the patient or question and integrate that evidence with clinical expertise, patient preferences and apply it to the practice.
Step 6: Evaluate the performance with the patient or question.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on March 19, 2008 (boomark / email).