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Gail R. Wilensky Developing A Center For Comparative Effectiveness Information Health Affairs, November/December 2006; 25(6): w572-w585. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] [Reprints & Permissions]

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Abbreviated Way Of Speaking Triggers Misunderstanding

Ulrich Paschen   ( 20 November 2006 )

Abbreviated Way Of Speaking Triggers Misunderstanding 20 November 2006
Ulrich Paschen, Senior Consultant IQ Institute for Quality-Systems in Medicine and Science Send letter to journal: Re: Abbreviated Way Of Speaking Triggers Misunderstanding upaschen{at}iq-institut.de Ulrich Paschen	The shortened expression in the subtitle of this paper may trigger some misunderstandings. Decisions are not based on effectiveness alone: The choice is made for quality. And quality is a set of characteristics -- effectiveness, safety, acceptability, good performance, and appropriateness. Knowledge is (or should be) based on evidence -- decisions are made intiutively from preferences, individual conditions, and (we hope it counts more and more) knowledge. The center on clinical practice must collect knowledge on the quality characteristics of diagnosing und treatment, based on evidence, and create an independent forum of discussion. So, we can hope to shape the decisions of patients and their consultants in the way to use the presented knowledge and to prefer practices we know most about. But I am skeptical of whether we can succeed in the plan. In medical affairs, people are too superstitious. Believers in astrology do not suffer from lack of knowledge -- they refuse to use it.