PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Andreas Gerber
AU  - Frieder Hentzelt
AU  - Karl W Lauterbach
TI  - Can evidence-based medicine implicitly rely on current concepts of disease or does it have to develop its own definition?
AID  - 10.1136/jme.2006.017913
DP  - 2007 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 394--399
VI  - 33
IP  - 7
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/33/7/394.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/33/7/394.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2007 Jul 01; 33
AB  - Decisions in healthcare are made against the background of cultural and philosophical definitions of disease, sickness and illness. These concepts or definitions affect both health policy (macro level) and research (meso level), as well as individual encounters between patients and physicians (micro level). It is therefore necessary for evidence-based medicine to consider whether any of the definitions underlying research prior to the hierarchisation of knowledge are indeed compatible with its own epistemological principles.