Evidence-Based Medicine Matters

Professor Vincent Marks

Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry

Just because a lot of people believe in something does not make it true. Evidence-based medicine is concerned mainly with treatment by proving that claims for the effectiveness of medicines are based on science and established by properly conducted clinical trials and not on mythology, folk-lore or pseudo-science. Correct diagnosis is the key to modern evidence based medicine; even the most effective medicines will only work when given to patients with the correct diagnosis. Diagnosis depends on an understanding of a patient’s illness (pathology) and the application of rigorously tested and scientifically proven diagnostic procedures. False claims made for procedures such as chelation tests, hair analysis and IGG (immunoglobulin) tests for food allergy with tenuous links to science as well as those that are pure fantasy such as Vega testing, Iridology and Crystal Ball Gazing are designed to deceive. Unlike genuine diagnostic tests they are not based on science and do not withstand critical scrutiny; no data establishing their validity, including their error rate, will have been published in peer reviewed literature. Collectively false diagnostic tests are nothing but scams that have ruined people’s lives and deceived many more into undertaking unproven, sometimes dangerous and always costly "therapeutic" interventions for non-existent illnesses or those that should have been treated properly by EBM.