RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Can evidence-based medicine implicitly rely on current concepts of disease or does it have to develop its own definition?
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 394
OP 399
DO 10.1136/jme.2006.017913
VO 33
IS 7
A1 Andreas Gerber
A1 Frieder Hentzelt
A1 Karl W Lauterbach
YR 2007
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/33/7/394.abstract
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.