Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31435979›Full record

ArticleJournal of evaluation in clinical practice2020

Reinforced reasoning in medicine.

Daniel Auker-Howlett, Michael Wilde

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–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

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The use of mechanistic reasoning in assessing coronavirus interventions.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2021
    Article
  2. Reinforced reasoning in medicine.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2020
    Article
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

2 authors.

Daniel Auker-HowlettDepartment of Philosophy, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2477-863X
Michael WildeDepartment of Philosophy, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2216-0115

Funding

Arts and Humanities Research Council AH/M005917/1Arts and Humanities Research Council CHASE Scholarship
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Some philosophers have argued that evidence of underlying mechanisms does not provide evidence for the effectiveness of a medical intervention. One such argument appeals to the unreliability of mechanistic reasoning. However, mechanistic reasoning is not the only way that evidence of mechanisms might provide evidence of effectiveness. A more reliable type of reasoning may be distinguished by appealing to recent work on evidential pluralism in the epistemology of medicine. A case study from virology provides an example of this so-called reinforced reasoning in medicine. It is argued that in this case study, the available evidence of underlying mechanisms did in fact play a role in providing evidence in favour of a medical intervention. This paper therefore adds a novel and recent case study to the literature in support of evidential pluralism in medicine.

Indexed as

Evidence-Based MedicineProblem SolvingCultural DiversityHumansKnowledgeevidence-based medicineevidential pluralismmechanismsmechanistic reasoningreinforced reasoningvirology

Identifiers

PMID31435979
PMCPMC7154706

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

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.