Evidence map›Paper›PMID 20333473›Full record

ArticleTheoretical medicine and bioethics2010

The epistemology and ethics of chronic disease research: further lessons from ECMO.

Robyn Bluhm

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Mechanical assist devices for acute cardiogenic shock.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020
    Pooled it
  2. Ethics in extracorporeal life support: a narrative review.Critical care (London, England) · 2021
    Review
  3. Ranking evidence in substance use and addiction.The International journal on drug policy · 2020
    Article
  4. Does Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Improve Survival in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Failure?American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2018
    Article
  5. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Robyn BluhmDepartment of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA. rbluhm@odu.edu

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Robert Truog describes the controversial randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy in newborns. Because early results with ECMO indicated that it might be a great advance, saving many lives, Truog argues that ECMO should not have been tested using RCTs, but that a long-term, large-scale observational study of actual clinical practice should have been conducted instead. Central to Truog's argument, however, is the idea that ECMO is an unusual case. Thus, it is an open question whether Truog's conclusions can be extended to other areas of medical research. In this paper, I look at epistemological and ethical issues arising in the care of patients with chronic diseases, using ECMO as a starting point. Both the similarities and the dissimilarities of these two cases highlight important issues in biomedical research and support a conclusion similar to Truog's. Observational studies of clinical practice provide the best evidence to inform the treatment of patients with chronic disease.

Indexed as

Chronic DiseaseEthics, ResearchKnowledgeBioethical IssuesEvidence-Based MedicineExtracorporeal Membrane OxygenationHumansInfant, NewbornObservationPatient SelectionRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicReproducibility of ResultsResearch DesignSelection BiasTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.