Aristotle, the godfather of evidence-based medicine

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 THE GODFATHER OF EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE


Aristotle is a well-known Greek philosopher and scientist born in 384 BC (Amadio & Kenny, 2019). He is considered one of the greatest intellects in history, and a lot of his philosophical work is still embedded in Western thinking (Amadio & Kenny, 2019). However, many may not realise the impact Aristotle had on our health system, as being the godfather of evidence-based medicine. Aristotle’s logic and philosophy was the main reason medicine transitioned from superstition towards a more scientific method (Sallam, 2010). One of his main contributions was the introduction of the concept of “logic”, where all natural phenomena and laws were to be based on common sense (If A = B, and B = C, then A = C) (Sallam, 2010).

 The concept of evidence-based medicine grew over the centuries to expand health care, and a subsection of evidence-based medicine is measurement-based care. Measurement-based care uses methodical and routine assessments of a patient's condition throughout their care, including patient-reported progress and outcomes, such as symptoms, to enhance treatment decisions and improve patient outcomes.

 Measurement-based care has essentially three key ingredients. The health care professional must routinely engage the patient and collect patient-reported outcomes, they need to share the feedback with the patient and discuss progress over time, and they need to use the information gathered to guide the course of the care.

 The use of measurement-based care is essential in evidence-based medicine and is continually being updated as new evidence emerges (Boswell et al., 2015). The next blog will explore a more recent discovery of measurement in health from Florence Nightingale and her contribution to analysing patient care.

 

 

References

Amadio, A. H., & Kenny, A. J. P. (2019). Aristotle | Biography, Contributions, & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle

American Psychological Association. (2006). Evidence-based practice in psychology. American Psychologist, 61(4), 271–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.61.4.271

Boswell, J. F., Kraus, D. R., Castonguay, L. G., & Youn, S. J. (2015). Treatment outcome package: Measuring and facilitating multidimensional change. Psychotherapy, 52(4), 422–431. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000028

Sallam, H. N. (2010). Aristotle, the godfather of evidence-based medicine. Facts, Views & Vision in ObGyn, 2(1), 11–19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4154333/

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