Dr Trisha Greenhalgh discusses how the classical approach of a clinical trial to determine the efficacy of an intervention is not feasible or even possible in the time of a pandemic. Population-wide public health efforts, such as wearing face masks are considered of low methodological quality in evidence-based medicine. Pandemics however demand rapid policy implementation to protect the spread of infection without delay.
Image Credit: leo2014 Pixabay
Editorial
Will COVID-19 be evidence-based medicine’s nemesis?
PLOS Medicine: published June 30, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003266
Perspective
Social determinants of health, data science, and decision-making: Forging a transdisciplinary synthesis
PLOS Medicine: published June 11, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003174
Research Articles
Studying individual risk factors for self-harm in the UK Biobank: A polygenic scoring and Mendelian randomisation study
PLOS Medicine: published June 1, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003137
Chronic pain diagnosis in refugee torture survivors: A prospective, blinded diagnostic accuracy study
PLOS Medicine: published June 5, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003108
Population ageing and mortality during 1990–2017: A global decomposition analysis
PLOS Medicine: published June 8, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003138
Efficacy of intravenous iron treatment for chemotherapy-induced anemia: A prospective Phase II pilot clinical trial in South Korea
PLOS Medicine: published June 8, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003091
A multiple risk factor program is associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease in 70-year-olds: A cohort study from Sweden
PLOS Medicine: published June 11, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003135
Fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway and incidence of type 2 diabetes: A pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies
PLOS Medicine: published June 12, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003102
The association between use of proton-pump inhibitors and excess mortality after kidney transplantation: A cohort study
PLOS Medicine: published June 15, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003140
Antibiotic prescription practices in primary care in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
PLOS Medicine: published June 16, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003139
Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infections in China: A multicenter case series
PLOS Medicine: published June 16, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003130
The potential impact of COVID-19 in refugee camps in Bangladesh and beyond: A modeling study
PLOS Medicine: published June 16, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003144
Telemonitoring at scale for hypertension in primary care: An implementation study
PLOS Medicine: published June 17, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003124
The association between long-term exposure to low-level PM2.5 and mortality in the state of Queensland, Australia: A modelling study with the difference-in-differences approach
PLOS Medicine: published June 18, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003141
Predicting and elucidating the etiology of fatty liver disease: A machine learning modeling and validation study in the IMI DIRECT cohorts
PLOS Medicine: published June 19, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003149
Distinct subtypes of polycystic ovary syndrome with novel genetic associations: An unsupervised, phenotypic clustering analysis
PLOS Medicine: published June 23, 2020 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003132