[phrh8]

I won't pretend to know about or have any background in medicine, but based on a cursory reading of the article, it seems to be a term for applying the Scientific method to medicine. The idea that we only started doing this 50 years ago is terrifying to say the least.

It seems to me that the problem here is that our industry, built around throwing expensive drugs at problems, paying for results and lobbying governments and insurance companies is ripe for abuse of "science".

That said, "pure" science is about more than published papers: it's about taking the data and observations you have and constructing the most likely theories and explanations around the observed evidence. If we had a capability to separate funding (and emotions) from research we might be able to produce good results given enough open data (which is itself a challenge).

As an uninformed software developer, I think medicine is a field where machine learning based tools will shine: ethical ("hippa") issues aside, we eventually might be able to feed all observed data, from diagnosis to results years after treatment into computer systems which might be able to make sense of the data and allow us to construct conclusions of the data unbiased by personal and business incentives.

Obviously our current eco-policital climate is strewn with roadblocks, but just wanted to put it out there that science doesn't have to lead us down this path if done right.

[Fomite]

> The idea that we only started doing this 50 years ago is terrifying to say the least.

It's also a flawed notion. There has been a concerted push in the last 50 years, but applying the scientific method to medicine is considerably older. Koch's Postulates, for example, were published in 1890.

[droopyEyelids]

You're talking about applying the scientific method to understanding disease, which is not Evidence-based Medicine.

Evidence-based Medicine is applying the scientific method to the practice of medicine.

Please read the link before spreading misinformation.

[Fomite]

I picked one example, but there are others that well predate the term "Evidence Based Medicine". Semmelweis comes to mind. But I've also seen Koch's Postulates used in evaluating the practice of medicine, in addition to the study of disease.

You could ask for clarification before simply assuming I don't know what I'm talking about.

Furthermore, I'd suggest that understanding disease and understanding the practice of medicine are far more entangled than your division suggests.