Evidence-Based Medicine Matters

Dr Oliver Samuel

Having practised as a GP with the murkiest of knowledge how effective what we did could be, I embraced the arrival of EBM - not only the statistical assessment of evidence, but above all else the ready availability of information on the web, Medline etc. This transformed my working life. So I was saddened by the increasing public acceptance of crackpot medicine just at the time we had begun to know what really did make a difference. Still we were at last able to tell the difference and advise out patients accordingly, even if the others were now able to advertise strongly their line of practice which lacked science but was able to attract support - rather the way tobacco does.