The allure of evidence-based medicine is that it sounds so objective: free of bias, and free of judgment. But at its core, the evidence-based recommendations from the American College of Physicians are a collective subjective judgment, or a balancing act of tradeoffs.
Disease
Pigs have their noses constantly in the mud, and they eat just about anything. It's not a surprise, therefore, that they carry potentially dangerous infections. And raising the pig yourself and naming it Oinker doesn't mean it will be more hygienic than any other pig.
Ensa Cosby died from renal disease, a condition that afflicts a disproportionate number of African Americans.
Every year, 5.6 million children under the age of 5 die. That's roughly the same size as the entire Atlanta metropolitan area. Imagine a city that size filled only with children aged 4 and younger. Now, imagine that city being wiped off the map. Every year. That's the scope of the problem that global poverty presents.
CDC data shows that for the past few weeks, of sick people who went to the hospital and got tested about 26% of specimens were positive for influenza. Now in Week 7 of 2018, it has dropped to 25%. Finally, we appear to have turned the corner on this awful flu season.
Although you might think that living in an urban setting is worse for your lungs, recent data from the CDC point out that there's more Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in rural areas. Why? Possible reasons include a higher smoking rate as well as more environmental exposures.
Although we're used to hearing about studies in which people are given candidate drugs – which may or may not be safe or effective – this purposeful infection of healthy people with parasites seems to be a different type of experimental paradigm. Is this really ethical, or does it contradict the principle of "do no harm"?
Diabetes is a chronic disease and the longer it's present, the more it adversely impacts other body functions. Especially the cardiovascular system.
We want American scientists to know as quickly as possible when an unusual case of the sniffles occurs in Africa or Asia. From there, we could be able to model the likelihood of the disease spreading beyond its origin. Such a strategy could help prevent Ebola from making a return visit to the United States.
Nate Archibald, whose 14-year NBA career included a championship season with the Boston Celtics, suffers from an incurable heart disease, which he discovered by accident. Amyloidosis can affect any organ or tissue. But when it plagues the heart, death can arrive at any moment.
We all want physicians to use evidence-based medicine, but sometimes the early evidence is literally "too good to be true." A recent study demonstrates the Proteus effect when early studies are often contradictory and fail to reflect real-world practice.
Last year, Italy had more than 5,000 cases, for an incidence of 8 per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, the United States had 118 cases, for an incidence of roughly 0.04 per 100,000 people. The populist politicians and anti-vaxxers are to blame.