Guidelines for the management of specified clinical conditions are increasingly being touted as a vital component of the future delivery of health care. However, there are many guidelines that have been drawn up which have remained in the closed shelves of many clinics and hospitals. This article is available only...

Alternative medicine has become widely publicised throughout the world. Alternative medicine practitioners (AMPS), which include Oriental medicine doctors, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, naturopaths and Ayurvedic medicine practitioners, tout the ability to heal many diseases using treatments which are unconventional and of questionable scientific basis. This article is available only as...

A “megatrial” is a very large randomised controlled clinical trial (RCT) recruiting many thousands of patients from many centres in order to assess the effectiveness of treatments on clinical outcomes. Examples of megatrials which successfully recruited more than 10,000 patients include the International Studies of Infarct Survival (ISIS) series...

There is considerable interest in complementary medicine (CM) and the usage of various alternative therapies is reportedly at an all-time high in the West. Bensoussan stated that each year, 57% of Australians were using CM with an estimated expenditure of A$621 million spent on complementary medicines (products) and A$309...

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a long history but its efficacy is not as well-documented as one would hope. Proof of efficacy has to come from clinical trials, i.e., prospective experiments for assessing the results of medical interventions. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download...

The Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine (COFM), previously the Department of Social Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), was inaugurated in 1948 as part of the King Edward VII College of Medicine, the forerunner of the National University of Singapore. The Department’s mission is to excel in teaching,...

The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM), which integrates individual clinical expertise with the best available evidence from systematic research, demands a set of skills. These skills help clinicians retrieve, appraise and apply the current best evidence. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on...

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases affecting Singaporeans. In 2004, 8.2% of the population was afflicted, placing a significant burden on healthcare resources and affecting the well-being of the community. This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to...

Knowledge and skills of evidence-based medicine (EBM) can be taught by many methods, such as role modeling evidence-based care, using evidence for clinical medicine instruction, and teaching specific EBM skills. Standalone courses and workshops away from the clinical environment are usually the traditional educational designs for teachers to convey...