Research Associate, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
*Corresponding Author: Prof. B. Meel, MBBS, MD, DHSM (Natal), DOH (Wits), M. Phil HIV/AIDS Managment (Stellenbosch), Research Associate, Faculty of Health Sceinces, Nelson Mandela Metropolitian University, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa
Online published on 23 December, 2019.
During the past few years, there has been a burgeoning interest in evidence based medicine. Doctors practising evidence-based medicine will identify and apply the most efficacious interventions to maximize the quality and quantity of life for the individual patient, and this should raise rather than lower the cost of their care.
The unlimited needs of human beings would not have been a problem if we had all the necessary and sufficient resources. The fact is, however, that our resources are limited. The Hippocratic Oath teaches us to care for individual patients and to enhance their welfare, irrespective of resource constraints. By focusing on the needs of the individual patient, advocates of evidence-based medicine refuse to acknowledge the benefits in terms of future treatment of other patients. The present writer will discuss, with various examples, the need to redefine the centuries-old ethical issues based on the lines of the Hippocratic Oath in relation to the care of today's patient.
Ethics, Evidenced-based-medicine, and Hippocratic Oath
