Tag: science based medicine

EBM hierarchy

2023: The year that the evidence-based medicine (EBM) paradigm was weaponized against vaccines and public health

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been a very useful paradigm for assessing evidence in medicine. However, like any other framework, it can be misused, particularly when fundamentalist EBM methodolatry leads to its inappropriate application to questions for which it is ill-suited, a misuse that has been weaponized against public health during the pandemic.

/ January 1, 2024

SBM in 2023

Some thoughts as we complete our 15th year of science-based medicine.

/ December 20, 2023

It Will Take More Than “Courage” to Restore Public Trust in Medicine

Judah Kreinbrook, a first year medical student, responds to a post on Sensible Medicine by a medical student that exaggerated the risk of myocarditis from COVID-19 vaccines while expressing anger at how trust in medicine has been undermined. Having been raised by a family steeped in antivaccine views, Kreinbrook invokes his journey to SBM to gently correct his fellow medical student and...

/ December 31, 2022

15 Years of SBM

A look back at a decade and a half of SBM.

/ December 21, 2022

Aromatase inhibitors and acupuncture in breast cancer: Spinning a negative study, four years later

Four years ago, I wrote about an essentially negative study looking at whether acupuncture could alleviate joint pain caused by aromatase inhibitors, a common treatment for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer. The study's back, and it doesn't look any more positive.

/ November 14, 2022
Acupuncture

But Is It Real?

Why we need more science in medicine.

/ September 7, 2022
Supreme Court

Legislative alchemy and abortion: How the fall of Roe v. Wade will degrade science-based medicine

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, eliminating the federal right to an abortion. What does that mean for science-based reproductive health and science-based medicine in general? Hint: It's not good, even for areas of medicine outside of reproductive health.

/ June 27, 2022
Universal health insurance

Medical debt vs. universal health insurance: The interface between SBM and policy

This blog has long argued that the best medicine is science-based medicine (SBM). The problem is that in the US SBM is often not accessible, except at ruinous cost, which is why I argue that we have to broaden our definition of SBM to include the systems that deliver it and pay for it.

/ June 20, 2022

A Farewell Note

Au revoir, but not forever!

/ April 21, 2022
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

How to design high quality acupuncture trials: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Acupuncture advocates have published guidelines for "rigorous" acupuncture randomized controlled trials. While that sounds good on the surface, the devil is in the details, which reveal that the dedication to scientific rigor is perhaps not so strong.

/ April 11, 2022