Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T08:52:44.533Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Controlled Studies in Measuring the Efficacy of Medical Care: A Historical Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2009

Bernard S. Bloom
Bernard S. Bloom
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There are three phenomena unique to medical research. First, unlike most historic events and their time- and culture-specific relationships, determination of the efficacy of medical care cuts across national and cultural boundaries in the Western world. Second, most of the study methods currently used to determine whether a specific medical intervention works have a long tradition, usually stretching back over centuries. Third, it is difficult to predict whether, and how readily, research results will be incorporated into medical practice.

Type
General Essays
Information
International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , February 1986 , pp. 299 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Bull, J. P.The historical development of clinical therapeutic trials. Journal of Chronic Disease, 1959, 10, 218–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Birch, T. (ed.). The works of the Honourable Robert Boyle. (The usefulness of natural philosophy). Vol. I. London: Millar, 1744.Google Scholar
3.Lind, J.A treatise of the scurvy. Edinburgh: Sands, Murray and Cochran, 1753.Google Scholar
4.Van Helmont, J. A.: Oriatrike, or physick refined. The common errors therein refuted and the whole are reformed and rectified. Translated by Chandler, John. London: Loyd, 1662.Google Scholar
5.Medical Research Council. Streptomycin treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. British Medical Journal, 1948, 2, 769–782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Medical Research Council. The prevention of whooping cough by vaccination. British Medical Journal, 1951, 1, 1462–1471.Google Scholar
7.Chalmers, T. C., Eckhardt, R. D., & Reynolds, W. E. et al. , The treatment of acute infectious hepatitis. Journal of Clinical Investigations, 1955, 34, 1163–1235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8.Behring, E., Boer, O., & Kossel, H.Zur Behandlung diphtheriekranker Menschen mit Diphtherieheilserum. Deutsche Medicinische Wochenschrift, 1893. 19, 389–419.Google Scholar
9.Fibiger, J.Om serum behandlung of difteri. Hospitalstidende, 1898, 6, 309–325.Google Scholar
10.Goldberger, J., Waring, C. H., & Willets, D. G.The prevention of pellegra: A test of diet among institutional inmates. Public Health Reports, 1915, 30: 3117–3131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Codman, E. A.A study of hospital efficiency. Boston: Thomas Todd, 1914.Google Scholar
12.Ward, G. G., & Farrar, L. K. P.Radium treatment of carcinoma of the cervix uteri: Results at the Women's Hospital after five years. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1925, 85, 159–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Ward, G. G., & Farrar, L. K. P.Eleven years' experience with radium treatment of carcinoma of the cervix, at the Woman's Hospital. Surgery. Gynecology and Ob stetrics, 1931, 52, 556–559.Google Scholar
14.Amberson, J. B., McMahon, B. T., & Pinner, M.A clinical trial of sanocrysin in pulmonary tuberculosis. American Review of Tuberculosis, 1931, 24, 401–435.Google Scholar
15.Medical Research Council. Clinical trial of patulin in the common cold. Lancet (ii), 1944. 373–375.Google Scholar
16.Therapeutic Trials Committee on the Medical Research Council. The serum treatment of lobar pneumonia. Lancet (i), 1934, 290–295.Google Scholar
17.Wyckoff, J., DuBois, E. F., & Woodruff, I. O.The therapeutic value of digitalis in pneumonia. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1930, 95, 1243–1247.Google Scholar
18.Armitage, P.Letter to the editor. Lancet (i), 1972, 1388.Google Scholar
19.Green, F. H. K.The clinical evaluation of remedies. Lancet (ii), 1954, 1084–1091.Google Scholar
20.Packard, F. R.The life and times of Ambroise Pere, 1510–1590. 2nd ed.New York: Paul B. Hoeber, 1926.Google Scholar
21.Fitz, R. H.Zabdiel Boylston, inoculation, and the epidemic of smallpox in Boston in 1721. Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1911, 22, 315–327.Google Scholar
22.Boston Massachusetts Board of Health. Reprint of the Report of the Board of Health, December 16, 1802. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1901, 145, 445.Google Scholar
23.Louis, P. C. A.Researches on the effects of bloodletting in some inflammatory dis eases and on the influence of tartarized antimony and vesication in pneumonitis. Translated by Putnam, C. G.. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, 1836.Google Scholar
24.Semmelweis, I. P.The etiology, the concept and the prophylaxis of childbed fever [Originally published 1861]. Translated by F. P. Murphy. Medical Classics 5: 350–773. 1941.Google Scholar
25.Haygarth, J.Of the Imagination as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders of the Body. Bath: R. Crutwell, 1801.Google Scholar
26.Franklin, B. et al. , Animal Magnetism. Report of Benjamin Franklin and other commissioners charged by the King of France with the examination of the animal mag netism as practiced in Paris. Philadelphia: H. Perkins, 1837.Google Scholar
27.Dimond, E. G., Kittle, C. F., & Crockett, J. E.Comparison of internal mammary artery ligation and sham operation for angina pectoris. American Journal of Cardiol ogy, 1960, 5, 483–486.Google Scholar
28.Simpson, J. Y.The works of Sir James Y. Simpson. Vol. 2: Anesthesia, hospitalism and hermaphroditism. Edited by Simpson, W. G.. Edinburgh: Adams and Charles Black, 1871.Google Scholar
29.Burdett, H. C.The relative mortality after amputations of large and small hospitals and the influence of the antiseptic (Listerian) system upon such mortality. London: Churchill, 1882.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30.Guy, W. A.Contributions to a knowledge of the influence of employments on health. Journal Royal Statistical Society, 1843, 6, 197–211.Google Scholar
31.The Holy Scriptures. Vol. 2: Isaiah to II Chronicles. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1955.Google Scholar
32.Galton, F.Statistical inquiries into the efficacy of prayer. Fortnightly Review, 1872, 68, 125–135.Google Scholar
33.Petty, W.The economic writings of Sir William Petty. Edited by Hull, C. H.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1899.Google Scholar
34.Shattuck, L.Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts, 1850. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1948.Google Scholar
35.Dublin, L. K., & Whitney, J.The costs of tuberculosis. Publications of the American Statistical Association, 1920, 17, 441–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36.Alexander, L.Medical science under dictatorship. New England Journal of Medicine, 1949, 241, 39–47.Google Scholar
37.Russel, B.Skeptical Essays. New York: W. W. Norton Co., 1928.Google Scholar
38.Mather, H. G., Morgan, D. C., Pearson, N. G. et al. , Myocardial infarction: A comparison between home and hospital care for patients. British Medical Journal, 1976, 1, 925–929.Google Scholar
39.Hill, J. D., Hampton, J. R., & Mitchell, J. R. A.A randomized trial of home-vs-hospital management of patients with suspected myocardial infarction. Lancet (i), 1978, 837–841.Google Scholar