"There's a common misconception
that evidence-based medicine excludes or belittles experience or clinical
intuition, which it does not."

I did not say anything of the sort and my argument was not with the concept
of "evidence based medicine".  What I was trying to say, but was obviously
misunderstood, is this.  Just like any invention can be used for good and
bad, just as email can be used for getting out useful information and also
for receiving spam, the term "evidence based medicine" is being used in
sinister ways, to pommel the opposition into submission.  The pommelers
frequently are defending the status quo, in the case of breastfeeding as one
example, often based on no evidence at all (clinical or experimental), and
demanding that those who question them provide evidence.  And until that
evidence is produced (which, of course, is often not satisfactory, because
there are faults in the methodology, as if any study were perfect), we
continue what we have always done, and that's that.

This comes back to the physician's statements in the LA Times.  And I was
merely seconding Jennifer's statement.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC

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