Time once again for another installment of evidence-based medicine. The issue gets brought up in emails to me from time to time, and recently I’ve had a spate of them. So here’s another tutorial for your learning pleasure– this time, from the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
I think this issue is an important one, because as I’ve expressed many a time, one of the most critical questions you should be able to answer as a clinician is “Why?”. “Because that’s the way I was taught” or “That’s how we’ve always done it” probably isn’t going to cut it.
While the evidence base in forensics is still being formed, there’s enough literature and science to be able to make solid, clinically-informed decisions (as opposed to decisions formed by what outside disciplines such as law enforcement think you should be doing or decisions based on investigatory principles…in my humble opinion).
That’s not to say that the science can answer all our questions, or that there’s a reason for everything clearly laid out in the literature. Still, staying current and engaged is imperative for any good clinician. Hence this site…🙂