Category Archives: evidence

Conflict of interest?

Posted on April 3, 2018 by epihealth

Yesterday 3 colleagues and I submitted a refutation of an article concerned with opioids to a major journal. When it came to the section on stating whether I had a conflict of interest, I realized that I did not have … Continue reading →

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There is no one “opioid epidemic”

Posted on March 17, 2018 by epihealth

I am now spending more time on pain and opioid research than I am on infectious diseases. There’s a dearth of knowledge on the epidemiology of chronic pain. What we keep on hearing about, though, is “the opioid epidemic.” I … Continue reading →

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Patient outcomes and medical/health geography

Posted on March 8, 2017 by epihealth

Nearly 40 years ago, Ross Mullner and Jack Goldberg published “Toward an outcome-oriented medical geography: an evaluation of the Illinois trauma/emergency medical services system” (Soc Sci Med 1978;12(2D):103-110). The underlying question was whether regionalization and optimal location of services actually … Continue reading →

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Evidence based medicine and “in my experience.”

Posted on March 7, 2017 by epihealth

As an epidemiologist with interests in many clinical questions, I have naturally gotten drawn into the realm of evidence-based medicine. If you ask almost any clinician, he or she will state that they practice evidence-based medicine. But I wonder if … Continue reading →

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Pain seminar approaching

Posted on March 24, 2016 by epihealth

Each year, I get excited as the beginning of our seminar on multidisciplinary approaches to pain draws near. I teach this undergraduate honors seminar with my friend and colleague, John Loeser, of UW’s Department of Neurological Surgery, and also Anesthesiology … Continue reading →

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Reproducibility: Or Not?

Posted on September 5, 2015 by epihealth

A study that demonstrated a disappointing lack of reproducibility in studies in psychology has recently received much publicity in scientific journals as well as popular media, including the New York Times. Without going into the details of the study, only … Continue reading →

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