I am writing this as a simple, EBM-challenged, orthopaedic surgeon (is this re-iteratively redundant?). At any rate, I have a question that may get to the heart of the problem that CRAP has so eloquently uncovered.
In the course of practice in orthopaedic surgery (although not documented in the literature), it has been my experience (those of you who adhere to the EBM doctines hopefully will excuse this phraseology) that when I hit my finger with a hammer (or mallet, for that matter), my finger hurts. It is even worse if I use a power tool (like drilling through the finger). My question: how many times do I have to do this before I can say that I have sufficient evidence to potentially causally link the hammer blow to my finger hurting? And what do I use as the control?
One of my teachers in medical school once noted that fields such as Orthopaedic Surgery were very difficult for some physicians to master because they required the exercise of "common sense". Is the inability to use "common sense" (CS) what lies behind the development of EBM? Perhaps it is an attempt by the CS-challenged among us to make the CS-gifted feel bad (or just inadequate). I think this is an area of research that CRAP might find fruitful as they continue their investigations into this new religion.
Competing interests:
I like hammers and power tools
Rapid Response:
EBM and "common sense"
Dear Sirs and Madams,
I am writing this as a simple, EBM-challenged, orthopaedic surgeon (is this re-iteratively redundant?). At any rate, I have a question that may get to the heart of the problem that CRAP has so eloquently uncovered.
In the course of practice in orthopaedic surgery (although not documented in the literature), it has been my experience (those of you who adhere to the EBM doctines hopefully will excuse this phraseology) that when I hit my finger with a hammer (or mallet, for that matter), my finger hurts. It is even worse if I use a power tool (like drilling through the finger). My question: how many times do I have to do this before I can say that I have sufficient evidence to potentially causally link the hammer blow to my finger hurting? And what do I use as the control?
One of my teachers in medical school once noted that fields such as Orthopaedic Surgery were very difficult for some physicians to master because they required the exercise of "common sense". Is the inability to use "common sense" (CS) what lies behind the development of EBM? Perhaps it is an attempt by the CS-challenged among us to make the CS-gifted feel bad (or just inadequate). I think this is an area of research that CRAP might find fruitful as they continue their investigations into this new religion.
Competing interests:
I like hammers and power tools
Competing interests: No competing interests