Evidence-Based Medicine Reconsidered
1008, 10th Floor of Cathedral of Learning
University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh 15260
United States
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Evidence-Based Medicine Reconsidered
April 5, 2025 @ 8:00 am - April 6, 2025 @ 5:00 pm EDT
Senior Visiting Fellow Conference by Carl Hoefer
The evidence-based medicine (EBM) movement began in the 1980s, reached its peak perhaps in the 1990s, and has since then enjoyed the status of orthodoxy, despite many criticisms being raised among medical practitioners and researchers. Philosophers of medicine have frequently criticized EBM’s hierarchies and rigid precepts, especially the “gold standard” status of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A pluralistic approach to evidence in medicine has been increasingly popular in recent years, in which mechanistic evidence and reasoning, observational studies of many kinds and RCTs are assessed for value on a case-by-case basis. But does this trend away from the EBM hierarchy go too far and risk the reintroduction of the same biased, motivated evidence-gathering practices that originally motivated the EBM movement? What light can recent experiences in medicine and public health (e.g., during the covid-19 pandemic) shed on these issues?
