On the False Claim of EBM Movement as a Paradigm Shift of Modern Medicine: Recollections of an Affirmant

Abstract

From 1990s to 2000s, the storm of evidence-based medicine (EBM) had attacked heavily on Japanese medical societies. Under the conviction of reflecting the medical principle from collective clinical data to each individual patient, EBM trumpeted itself as a paradigm shift of modern medicine implying a crusade against L’homme Machine theory which see human body as mere machine. But EBM is not a paradigm shift of modern medicine from the viewpoint of science studies only attributable to scientific medicine. Early EBM had some fundamental flaws which seeded scientific misconducts in medicine and ceased as early as 2000s in Japan. In this article, the author overviewed the history of EBM in Japan and argued issues around importing EBM concepts into Japan.