The need for a rationalist turn in evidence-based medicine.

When evidence-based medicine (EBM) became established, its dominant rhetoric was empiricist, in spite of rationalist elements in its practice. Exploring some of the key statements about EBM down the years, the paper examines the tensions between empiricism and rationalism and argues for a rationalist turn in EBM to help to develop the next generation of scholarship in the field.

Keywords

Cochrane, NICE, clinical guidelines, epistemology, evidence-based medicine, practical reasoning, Advisory Committees, Empiricism, Evidence-Based Medicine, Fellowships and Scholarships, Practice Guidelines as Topic, Rationalization

Journal Title

J Eval Clin Pract

Journal ISSN

1356-1294
1365-2753

Volume Title

24

Publisher

Wiley

Publisher DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12974

Rights and licensing

Except where otherwised noted, this item's license is described as Attribution 4.0 International

Sponsorship

The work was supported by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Grant number AH/M005917/1) (‘Evaluating Evidence in Medicine’).

Collections

University of Cambridge Research Outputs (Articles and Conferences)