Evidence-Based Medicine

Do you know the trick with the spoon in the top of the champagne bottle?

A spoon put into an opened champagne bottle is supposed to keep the champagne fresh and bubbly for longer. How can you test if that is true? And what has that got to do with evidence-based medicine?

Read more here about the basics of evidence-based medicine (URL: index.79.433.en.html)


Why is it important for people to be "randomised" in trials?

The story of an important large randomised trial from 1954 shows the importance of "randomising" people in trials. The trial tested the use of high levels of oxygen in incubators for preterm babies and found that it was causing blindness in many babies. This was used for many years without being adequately tested.

A cautionary tale of medically-caused blindness (URL: index.79.434.en.html)