Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Evidence-Based Practice
Lecture:Definition and application of EBM
Slide content:Why Are We Not Evidence-Based? Thomas Kida (2006) lists six ways we arrive at false beliefs: We prefer stories to statistics. We seek to confirm, not to question, our ideas. We rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence in shaping events. We sometimes misperceive the world around us. We tend to oversimplify our thinking. Our memories are often inaccurate. 5
Slide notes:5 So whats the big deal about evidence-based medicine? Why arent we evidence-based in everything we do? Some interesting writings from the popular press talk about how we humans arrive at decisions and how we apply evidence not just in medicine but in everything we do. Thomas Kidas book Dont Believe Everything You Think describes six ways that humans come to false beliefs. One is that we tend to prefer stories over statistics. Another is that we often seek to confirm and not to question our ideas. Yet another issue is that humans rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence in shaping events, although those of us exposed to EBM are hopefully a little better at that. Sometimes we misperceive whats going on in the world around us. Sometimes we oversimplify our thinking, and human memories are often inaccurate. We dont always remember events exactly as they occurred, especially over time.