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February
2, 2005
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Vol.
8 No. 2
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SPOTLIGHT
ON RESOURCES
In the early 1970s, as researchers
began to document the gap between clinical research and practice and
widely varying treatments for the
same diseases, the seed for evidence-based medicine was planted. Thirty
years later, evidence-based medicine is both a reality and an unrealized
goal, according to this month’s Spotlight.
The January-February 2005
issue of Health Affairs contains a wealth of articles on putting evidence
into practice. Beginning with a history
of evidence-based medicine, the issue contains articles on how evidence-based
guidelines affect a physician’s prescriptions to individual patients
and whether guidelines can consistently change physician behavior. Researchers
discuss the technological challenges of evidence-based medicine, how
political factors influence the translation of evidence into policy at
the federal and local levels and how much (and what kind of evidence)
is needed to consider a practice “evidence-based.” The issue
also contains several case studies, including the debate over an implantable
defibrillator and treatment for emphysema, to illustrate the “promises
and pitfalls” of evidence-based medicine.
The new issue of Health Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 1, is at http://www.healthaffairs.org/.
(subscription required, or see Web site for purchasing single articles.)
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