Talk:Evidence-based medicine/Draft

Evidence-based medicine

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Too many sections?

I'm sure this article is excellent, but, without reading it, I wonder if we could sensibly and usefully reduce the number of headings? This tends to interrupt the flow of the article. Actually, so many headings actually makes it hard for a "flow," or a narrative, to develop in the first place. Please see Article Mechanics on this; the longer version goes into this in some detail. --Larry Sanger 22:03, 21 February 2008 (CST)

Hey, this page needs to be archived! It's getting very long! --Larry Sanger 22:03, 21 February 2008 (CST)

Okay, I archived for a fresh new outlook. --D. Matt Innis 11:58, 12 March 2008 (CDT)

I cut out some stuff. Also, does anybody mind if I cut out the section "Why do we need EBM"? I do not see that it adds much to the text in the introduction. Also, it contains no references. - Robert Badgett 22:14, 21 February 2008 (CST)

Agree it can be cut.Gareth Leng 11:46, 12 March 2008 (CDT) Can we cut out the sentences like "For more information, see: Clinical practice guideline" and instead a) link the phrase at first appearance and b) add to the related articles subpage?Gareth Leng 11:48, 12 March 2008 (CDT)

Responses to too many sections

I agree succinct is nice; however, I find that WikiPedia can be hard to follow when a topic is scattered over several pages. I am not as bothered by the length. In part because I do not see further sections that can easily be lopped off and put in their own pages. Maybe the metric section could be moved to a statistics article. We have already separate pages for Teaching evidence-based medicine and Evidence-based individual decision making. Should these have been subpages?? I suggest leaving clinical practice guidelines represented in the TOC so the concept is not lost.

1. As nobody complained about my suggestion Feb 21 to delete the "Why do we need EBM", I have done so.
2. In the sections "Methods proposed for assessing validity" and "Criticisms of EBM" I made the subsections not appear in the TOC.
3. I moved publication bias content to article of that name.
4. I removed the section heading "Methods proposed for assessing validity" but left the content. This content should be merged with the later occurring section titled "Levels of evidence".

- Bob - Robert Badgett 15:48, 12 March 2008 (CDT)

I think there is more that can be done. Question: ok if I move most of informatics content to the existing article of that name?

Approval?

I've gone through this with a copyedit run and made some minor adjustments to lose some subsections and compress some bits of text on the page.

In my view, this is a very scholarly, comprehensive and useful guide to EBM, and a good gateway to many related articles.

I think the last section should go because it seems not really in tune with the article scope as its developed - but should be moved somewhere; the point is a good one, but is overweighted by the (very nice but tangential) image.

Please see if my edits are good with you Bob, and delete the last section if you agree, and I'm ready to propose approval. I think I've only copy edited here.Gareth Leng 17:53, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Regarding the complexity science question. What about just reducing the image (as I have done) or removing the image (which might be better and is ok with me)? If the image stays, its caption could be more succinct than I have done. By the way, the Hume statue is a great addition that you or someone did a while back. Otherwise all looks ok. - Robert Badgett 18:10, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Snag?

I edited the metadata template to flag To Approve but it hasn't registered - help anyone?Gareth Leng 10:49, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Got it, you must have deleted a "|" when you put your name in. D. Matt Innis 14:31, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Anyone know if there is a way to add metadata in a more user friendly manner? I think that would help a lot, especially with newbies who get intimidated by the metadata template issues. Possibly Howard could dust off the programming side of his brain. Or we could recruit someone who needs a project for their computer programming course? Or science fair. As for the article, it looks good. Chris Day 15:00, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Interesting that you mention that, Chris. I have a couple of unfunded potential projects, one in intelligent systems for both optimization and administration of drug prescribing, and another for process control of hydroponic cultivation of culinary herbs (I might have a question or two for you on botanical sensors). My last substantial programming was ten years or so ago, much of it real-time router code, and mostly in C. Somewhat later, I did some prototypes in Perl.

It is clear that I am going to have to learn some more current languages, much more Web integrated, as well as things that I can use with open source process control. Just at the moment, I've ben trying to decide on the priority of language skill to acquire. So, if you could tell me (email or here) what is used in MediaWiki and any tools, that would be a significant help to my planning. Not promising to deliver code yet, and I usually do design before coding; I am affected but not fully convinced by the Agile Programming manifesto. Nevertheless, I need to do some study anyway. My desktop environment is Windows, but I can certainly put server-appropriate Linux on a server here. Howard C. Berkowitz 15:41, 16 January 2009 (UTC)