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Conclusion: Time for Medical Reason

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Clinical Inertia

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Abstract

The phenomenon of clinical inertia of physicians who do not follow clinical practice guidelines was recognized recently and demands a reflection on the meaning of Evidence-Based Medicine. From an epistemological point of view, it is possible to consider Evidence-Based Medicine as a contemporary “invention” concomitant with those of patient education and the principle of autonomy in medicine. The fact that these three inventions were simultaneous allowed a balance between the first, establishing the state of knowledge of a medicine of diseases, and the latter two allowing the foundation of a person-centered medicine. But the three inventions are to a certain extent contradictory and their contradictions carry the seeds of patient nonadherence and physician clinical inertia, which are the revealing symptoms of these contradictions of modern medicine. This reflection allows one to understand the interest of “individualized” guidelines which will allow physicians to truly apply a sound practice of Evidence-Based Medicine: taking into account not only cohort-based science but also the individual character of any medical decision. Thus it is necessary to allow time for physician medical reason, which is to allow them to exercise their intellect: through this, medicine will keep its human dimension.

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  1. Avicenne Hospital and Paris 13 University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Bobigny, France

    Gérard Reach

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Reach, G. (2015). Conclusion: Time for Medical Reason . In: Clinical Inertia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09882-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09882-1_8

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