Discussion 4: Clinical medicine and guideline development
Discussion 4: Clinical medicine and guideline development
Read the first three chapters in the text by Fletcher. Explore the CDC site, National Center for Health Statistics at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/. This site’s information is largely gleaned from epidemiological studies and data collections.
Discuss epidemiology as the scientific basis for clinical medicine and guideline development. Explain some types of data, performance measurements and possible reasons for variations in data. Next share a bit of information or statistic you learn from reviewing the National Center for Health Statistics site.
To Comment:
Epidemiology is the evolution of science that modern day medicine is based. This encompasses the providers personal experiences, observations, and published factual evidence to make an educated, evidence-based diagnosis resulting in a treatment plan or outcome. The intention is to use the knowledge gathered from all of those systems in hopes it will limit the chances of guessing, misdiagnosing, or wrong or ineffective treatment and to provide better patient care (Fletcher, Fletcher & Fletcher, 2014).
Healthcare guidelines are constantly being updated to meet the standards of best practice. There has been grand improvements in medicine over the last decades and similarly there will be more to come. The important part of medicine is knowing it is in constant motion, striving to find better treatment, better answers, or find any explanation to any of the “5 D’s” as mentioned by Fletcher, Fletcher, and Fletcher (2014, p 2). Although using the latest, evidence-based information it may not always be the answer to the situation it’s being applied to and a big part of knowing how to use evidence-based literature. There are components in each study being published that have to be taken into consideration, and each published study basing the clinic decision on should acknowledge the components contributing in the study; which include things such as variables, sample sizes & clear descriptions of the population involved and any errors or bias included.
While reviewing the National Center for Health Statistics website, I was drawn to digestive disease as a top since I work in that services. I was shocked to find there was 32.2 million clinic visits with the primary diagnosis of disease of the digestive system. As well, 22 million clinic visits with the primary diagnosis of cancer (National Center for Health Statistics, 2017). These numbers are significant when I consider the work I do and the patients I see.
Reference
Fletcher, R. H., Fletcher, S. W., & Fletcher, G. S. (2014). Clinical Epidemiology The Essentials(5th ed.). Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
National Center for Health Statistics. (2017, May 3). Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/cancer.htm
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