Tag Archive for: health evidence

Show Me the Evidence

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A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree or certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world suffers. ~ Bertrand Russell 

If you follow science and medicine headlines – which I do – you’ll find yourself wondering which headlines to believe, and which to discount. Do I believe that cancer has been cured after seeing that headline in a newspaper? No, because the headline usually skips mentioning that the “cure” was “in mice,” and only a couple of mice. But what about a headline that says a new screening protocol can catch a cancer that’s usually not discovered until it’s metastatic?

Prescription? Follow the evidence.

That prescription can be a challenge, since wading through the science behind the headlines isn’t a short and easy process. But you’re up to that challenge, since there’s a handy-dandy “How to Read Scientific Papers” post to help you navigate the science.

However, I’m not going to just say “go forth, and read science!” Here are two resources to help you figure out what’s real, and what’s just a shiny object, when it comes to the evidence behind medical treatments.

  • Cochrane Crowd is a new project from the folks at Cochrane, the global collaborative with the mission to systematically review the scientific studies that medical evidence is based on – Crowd puts you on the systematic review team. They have training modules to get you up to speed on understanding how to assess scientific studies:
    • Treatments can harm
    • Anecdotes are unreliable
    • Expert opinion alone is not enough
    • The role of comparison
    • Comparing like with like
    • The role of blinding
    • Size matters
  • Health Evidence is a database created and maintained by McMaster University in Canada, where anyone can search for evidence reviews, which are rated on a color scale. Wrapped around this database are a “how to use this” video tutorial, ongoing webinars, a comprehensive glossary (pack a lunch!), and workshops on using evidence in public health policy and decision-making.

If you’re new to the evidence based medicine discussion, I’d recommend starting with Cochrane Crowd, since that’s aimed at getting the public involved in evaluating the evidence alongside professional scientists. The presentation of information is laid out in slices, with the initial 7 training modules leading you into a couple of interactive training sessions with clinical trial , where you’ll

Health Evidence is a deeper dive, aimed at a professional audience, but presented in a way that anyone who can read at an 8th grade level can understand, and use.

Evidence is what the work of science is – forming a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, and then proving or disproving it. Making the leap from “one mouse now has no tumors after we did this experiment on it” to “we’ve cured cancer!” is one that gets turned into clickbait headlines almost daily. But that linguistic leap does not represent actual scientific advancement.

Science is the slow, steady testing and retesting that happens in studies and trials across the globe. Once those studies and trials are complete, and reported in journals, the work continues to review those results against studies that look to replicate the results of the initial experiments. Then come the systematic reviews of all those experiments, and the assessment of whether what they’ve presented is evidence … or more questions that need to be answered. One mouse without tumors does not human medical evidence make.

Science is a process, and it’s always under review. The more of us who get involved, the more evidence will be proven, with less airtime given to unproven false promises. Get involved, because your life just might depend on it.