Volume 197 - Issue 6
Not window dressing, but key to making medical research matter
Author: Peter J McLaren
Med J Aust 2012; 197 (6): 328. || doi: 10.5694/mja12.11076
Published online: 17 September 2012
Published online: 17 September 2012
To the Editor: I welcome Nowak’s article on using stories to drive change in medical practice.1 It highlighted what I feel to be the main failure
of evidence-based medicine.
Although evidence-based medicine may be a great way to discern differences in the success of various treatment modalities, it may not be the best way of teaching them. In my experience, it sucks the vibrancy and immediacy ...
To the Editor: I welcome Nowak’s article on using stories to drive change in medical practice.1 It highlighted what I feel to be the main failure of evidence-based medicine.
Although evidence-based medicine may be a great way to discern differences in the success of various treatment modalities, it may not be the best way of teaching them. In my experience, it sucks the vibrancy and immediacy out of the message and fails to “hook” the audience.
Humans are hardwired as storytellers; we not only developed speech because we could, we did so because we delighted in it. I would join Nowak in inviting our medical teachers to return to the traditions of Homer and Hippocrates and put the story back into medical education; for the memory of the story will last long after a page of figures has been forgotten.
Competing interests
No relevant disclosures.
References
- Nowak RE. Not window dressing, but key to making medical research matter. Med J Aust 2012; 196: 618. 0_EGIIDBDE