Evidence Based Medicine proponents need to watch out for their friends

Dr. H. Brody et al authored an interesting article in a recent issue of Perspective in Biology and Medicine which point out problems posed by so-called friends of EBM. They speak of those who
exhibit "decerebrate genuflection before the alter of the RCT".These are the folks I spoke of in a earlier blog who denigrate the use of parachutes because their use has not been validated by a RCT.The second group of friends are the commercial sponsors of RCTs who sometimes at least corrupt the process by stacking the deck to mislead the readers.The third group is populated by those "advocates" such as HMOs and insurance companies who also corrupt the process by using RCT's to justify limiting care aka saving money whose mantra seems to be " If there is no RCT we don't need to pay". Much of the Autumn 2005 issue of Perspectives is devoted to thoughtful essays on EBM. Unfortunately there is no open web resource for the entire issue which made me actually go to the Medical society library to read it, a trip I have not made in years. One more quote, this time from the article from Dr. R. Upshur who speaks of a "near religious belief [in which] assertion has replaced argument."