Evidence: Its Meanings in Health Care and in Law

Special Issue Overview

In April 2000, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) hosted an expert meeting, "Evidence: Its Meanings and Uses in Law, Medicine and Health Care," to explore the differences in how scientists, clinical practitioners, judges, legal scholars, and juries interpret and use evidence. Participants included attorneys, judges, legal researchers, policymakers, physicians, and health services researchers.

As the participants in the workshop came to realize, the concept and attributes of "evidence" depends on where one sits. Although time-honored legal and medical science interpretations of "evidence" were recognized, it was also acknowledged that the legal system and the health care system would each benefit from sustained efforts of mutual education of practitioners from both fields.

A Special Issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, entitled "Evidence: Its Meanings in Health Care and in Law," was dedicated to thoughtful and provocative discussions of how "evidence" is defined and used in medicine and the law. The issue answers such questions as: How are courts dealing with clinical practice guidelines? How can the courts' use of medical evidence improve health care? How do privacy concerns fit into the evidence debate?

Electronic versions of the articles are provided in two formats: HTML documents and PDFs. Also note Copyright Constraints on all materials provided.

Contents

Editor's Note ( PDF - 20.37 KB)
Mark A. Peterson
Evidence: Its Meanings in Health Care and in Law, Workshop Summary ( PDF - 80.08 KB)
Clark C. Havighurst, Peter Barton Hutt, Barbara J. McNeil, and Wilhelmine Miller
An Epistemologist in the Bramble-Bush: At the Supreme Court with Mr. Joiner ( PDF - 127 KB)
Susan Haack
Proof and Policy from Medical Research Evidence ( PDF - 634.73 KB)
Cynthia D. Mulrow and Kathleen N. Lohr
Expertise in Law, Medicine, and Health Care ( PDF - 97.85 KB)
Daniel W. Shuman
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in the Courts: Recent Trends and Future Prospects ( PDF - 24.94 KB)
Peter D. Jacobson and Matthew L. Kanna
Evidence-Based Medicine and the Law: The Courts Confront Clinical Practice Guidelines ( PDF - 153.67 KB)
Arnold J. Rosoff
What Does Evidence Mean? Can the Law and Medicine Be Reconciled? ( PDF - 55.12 KB)
John M. Eisenberg
Commentary—Cost-Effectiveness Analyses: Making a Pseudoscience Legitimate ( PDF - 24.94 KB)
Drummond Rennie
Commentary—The Use of Evidence and Cost Effectiveness by the Courts: How Can It Help Improve Health Care? ( PDF - 82.85 KB)
David M. Eddy
Commentary—From the Clinics to the Courts: The Role Evidence Should Play in Litigating Medical Care ( PDF - 81.24 KB)
E. Haavi Morreim
Commentary—Demystifying the Law/Science Disconnect ( PDF - 45.71 KB)
Michelle M. Mello and Troyen A. Brennan
Commentary—The Politics of Evidence-Based Medicine ( PDF - 35.82 KB)
Marc A. Rodwin
 

Exchange of Views
Too Much Privacy? Or Not Enough? An Exchange on The Limits of Privacy ( PDF - 33.64 KB)
James A. Morone
Response to Professor James A. Morone ( PDF - 19.41 KB)
Amitai Etzioni
 

Books
Review Essay: Genetic Testing is Different
Ellen Wright Clayton

Genetic Testing for Alzheimer Disease: Ethical and Clinical Issues, by Stephen G. Post and Peter J. Whitehouse, eds.; Promoting Safe and Effective Genetic Testing in the United States: Principles and Recommendations, by the Task Force on Genetic Testing, NIH-DOE Working Group on Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Human Genome Research

Copyright Constraints:

The articles contained in this Special Issue were originally published in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. All rights reserved. This material may be saved for personal use only, but may not be otherwise reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any medium, print or electronic, without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Any alteration to or republication of this material is expressly prohibited.

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