E-DRUG: Wording of Papers, Use of Statistics (4)
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Dear E-drug Users,
On the issue of some of the reasons as to why we must use technical logic plus evidence when deciding what to do, i would like to highlight three situations.
1. There was evidence a while ago that atenolol is useful in heart failure. Indeed evidence proved so. Then a few years later, even better evidence proved otherwise. You can now notice how evidence can swift. It is really dynamic. Technical logic judges that atenolol really would not be so suitable for heart failure in the first place...See E-drug Archives
2. The TB DOTS Strategy. Evidence, some time back, showed that DOTS is as effective as the conventional therapy, and in fact , evidence showed that it had a number of advantages. A recent study produced evidence that DOTS may not be as good as expected. Better evidence has produced better results. Another case of evidence shift. Technical logic judges that conventional therapy yields much and even better dosing than DOTS. See E-drug Archives
3. Chloroquine in treatment of malaria. There was this conventional dosing, which was effective. Then some people performed evidence which showed that reducing the dose was as effective as using the conventional dose. Indeed, according to reliable witnesses, the speed at which chloroquine-resistant strains of the malaria germ happened was higher than it was before introducing the "evidence-based" strategy.
4. Imagine a situation where a study proves that a traditional healer can practice some medicine of sorts in order to help poor communities. And then someone judges from such a study that there is no need for doctors, all we need is to train a traditional healer to do the work. This is an extreme situation, but illustrates the intent.
Right, we need evidence. But we should tamper evidence with technical logic...always.
regards,
George Kibumba, MPS (Uganda)
Msc. Student (Sept 2004-Sept 2005),
Pharmaceutical Services and Medicines Control,
University of Bradford,
Wardley House, Flat A3, Room 1,
Bradford, BD5 0AE, United Kingdom.
Personal e-mail: kibumba@yahoo.com
Student e-mail: G.Kibumba@bradford.ac.uk