‘We threw the guidelines at her’

[摘要] Without clinical guidelines we’d be lost. We’d have no map to navigate the extraordinary quantity of clinical research, or mechanism for judging its quality and value. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is beholden to those who collate, appraise, and distil new information into clear recommendations. However, simply following guideline recommendations is not sufficient to be able to claim one is practising EBM.1 Careful, caring, and person-centred application of guidance is required to ensure patients benefit from, and are not harmed by, health care.I’d like to talk about Joan, an 86-year-old lady who had rarely visited the surgery.* She’d spent the last 5 years caring for her husband who had recently died. Joan was understandably bereft, but, apart from some bother from her hiatus hernia, she was independent and well. One day, she drove down to the surgery for an urgent appointment.

[学科分类] 卫生学