BookGerard Reach ; [translation by Claudia Ratti].
Summary: Clinical practice guidelines were initially developed within the context of evidence-based medicine with the goal of putting medical research findings into practice. However, physicians do not always follow them, even when they seem to apply to the particular patient they have to treat. This phenomenon, known as clinical inertia, represents a significant obstacle to the efficiency of care and a major public health problem, the extent of which is demonstrated in this book. An analysis of its causes shows that it stems from a discrepancy between the objective, essentially statistical nature of evidence-based medicine on the one hand and the physicianℓ́ℓs own complex, subjective view (referred to here as ℓ́ℓmedical reasonℓ́ℓ) on the other. This book proposes a critique of medical reason that may help to reconcile the principles of evidence-based medicine and individual practice. The author is a diabetologist and Professor of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases at Paris 13 University. He has authored several books, including one to be published by Springer (Philosophy and Medicine series) under the title: The Mental Mechanisms of Patient Adherence to Long Term Therapies, Mind and Care.
Contents:
Introduction
Definitions
The Evidence: The Gap Between Clinical Guidelines and Reality
Determinants and Explanatory Models of Clinical Inertia
The Doctor and Evidence-Based Medicine
To Do or Not to Do: A Critique of Medical Reason
Fighting Against True Clinical Inertia
Conclusion: Time for Medical Reason
References.