Evidence-Based Medicine

Abstract

This chapter marks a turn away from asking what medicine is, and toward asking what we should think of it. Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is the most influential development in thinking about attitudes to medicine in recent times. EBM has a prescription for medicine: make clinical decisions on the basis of “best evidence,” which is defined in a specific way. We should think more highly of interventions whose use is supported by better evidence. EBM also has a prescription for patients: hold your doctor to account, asking her to justify her proposed intervention in these terms. The chapter evaluates both prescriptions, and argues that, while both have their place, neither is a panacea.