Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 360, Issue 9329, 27 July 2002, Pages 330-333
The Lancet

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What kind of evidence do we need to justify humanitarian medical aid?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)09558-2Get rights and content

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What do we mean by evidence?

In the current parlance of evidence-based medicine, evidence is typically taken to mean the results of epidemiological data in the form of a statistical statement.15 More generically, however, evidence means the basis for inferences and thus for the resulting beliefs.16 The consequentialist (purely outcomesoriented) statistical formulation of evidence typically assumed in the context of evidence-based medicine is problematic as the sole basis of the justification and evaluation of humanitarian

An expanded evidence base

The call for an evidence base in humanitarian medical intervention is important because it spurs us to examine the aims of humanitarian medical work, to assess whether these aims could be achieved, and therefore to determine whether a particular intervention is justifiable. The multiplicity of aims and types of evidence reflects the fact that health care comprises not simply the application of diagnostic and therapeutic science by using societal resources, but also the consideration of ethical

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