HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by LANCASTER, T. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by LANCASTER, T. Topic Collections EBM Resource review

Jenicek M, Hitchcock DL. Evidence-based practice: logic and critical thinking in medicine. Chicago: AMA Press, 2004.

University of Oxford
Oxford, UK

Key Words: evidence-based medicine

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Although its title links this book to the evidence-based practice movement, Jenicek and Hitchcock’s text only tangentially addresses the clinical epidemiology, decision theory, and biostastistics that are the conventional tools of EBP. Instead, they set out to write a text anchoring the application of evidence within a framework of formal logic derived from the study of philosophy. Their underlying goal is to improve health care and teaching by improving critical thinking skills in medicine.

I read the book with interest. The first half provides an introduction to the theory and practice of logic. The authors provide a historical overview of models of logic from Aristotle to chaos theory and fuzzy logic. They show how to use the principles to analyse and construct logical arguments. Although they give some medical examples, this section is generic and would serve well as a text for an introductory course in a philosophy curriculum. Good . . . [Full text of this article]