Abstract
Evidence-based medicine has beendefined as the conscientious and judicious useof current best evidence in making clinicaldecisions. This paper will attempt to explicatethe terms ``conscientious'' and ``judicious''within the evidence-based medicine definition.It will be argued that ``conscientious'' and``judicious'' represent virtue terms derived fromvirtue ethics and virtue epistemology. Theidentification of explicit virtue components inthe definition and therefore conception ofevidence-based medicine presents an importantstarting point in the connection between virtuetheories and medicine itself. In addition, aunification of virtue theories andevidence-based medicine will illustrate theneed for future research in order to combinethe fields of virtue-based approaches andclinical practice.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Gray JA, Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence based medicine: What it is and what it isn't. BMJ 1996; 312(7023): 71–72.
Wulff HR, Andersen B, Brandenhoff P, Guttler F. What do doctors know about statistics? Stat Med 1987; 6(1): 3–10.
Popay J, Williams G. Qualitative research and evidence-based healthcare. J R Soc Med 1998; 91 (Suppl 35): 32–37.
Upshur R. The status of qualitative research as evidence. In: Morse J, Swanson J, Kuzel A, eds. The Nature of Qualitative Evidence. California: Sage Publications, Inc., 2001.
Gray J. Evidence-Based Healthcare. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997.
Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. Evidence-based medicine. A new approach to teaching the practice of medicine. JAMA 1992; 268: 2420–2425.
Sackett D, Haynes R, Tugwell P, Guyatt G. Clinical Epidemiology: A Basic Science for Clinical Medicine, 2nd edn. Boston: Little, Brown, 1991.
Mike V. Outcomes research and the quality of health care: The beacon of an ethics of evidence. Eval Health Prof 1999; 22(1): 3–32.
Miettinen OS. Evidence in medicine: Invited commentary. CMAJ 1998; 158(2): 215–221.
MacIntyre A. After Virtue. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981, pp. 138–154.
Pellegrino E. The virtuous physician and the ethics of medicine. In Shelp E, ed. The Philosophy and Medicine Series, Vol. 17. Boston: Reidel, 1985, p. 249.
Axtell G. Recent work on virtue epistemology. American Philosophical Quarterly 1997; 34: 26–66.
Sosa E. The raft and the pyramid: Coherence versus foundations in the theory of knowledge. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 1980; V: 3–25.
Gadamer H. Truth and Method. New York: The Seabury Press, 1975, p. 245.
Fernandez-Armesto F. Truth: A History and a Guide for the Perplexed. London: Black Swan Books, 1997, p. 22.
Zagzebski L. Virtues of the Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 79.
Morton A. Saving epistemology from the epistemologists: Recent work in the theory of knowledge. Br Soc Philos Science 2000; 51: 685–704.
Williamson T. Knowledge as evidence. Mind 1997; 106: 717–741.
Langston D. Conscience and Other Virtues. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001, pp. 176–177.
Jansen L. The virtues in their place: Virtue ethics in medicine. Theor Med Bioeth 2000; 21: 261–276.
Waring D. Why phronesis is not a medical activity. Theor Med Bioeth 2000; 21: 139–151.
Galison P. Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 803–840.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zarkovich, E., Upshur, R. The Virtues of Evidence. Theor Med Bioeth 23, 403–412 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021217908383
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021217908383