Monday, September 25, 2017

The Laws of Medicine, Bias and the Need to Be Nimble

Here is an interesting read, titled The Laws of Medicine- Field Notes from an Uncertain Science, by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

The laws of Medicine include:

1. A strong intuition is more powerful than a weak test
2. Normals teach us rules, outliers teach us laws
3. For every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias

This last point reminded me of bias with respect to paradigm rigidity. I have previously explored this theme in a recent blog.  In brief, we should not be too wedded to a strategy,  particularly if that strategy is not backed by robust evidence or if there is contradictory evidence in its support.  We need to be nimble and pragmatic, to satisfice in the real world of infection prevention. 

Therefore, I admit my bias: pragmatism. I am willing to be convinced otherwise.