Does a stubborn commitment to ‘evidence’ stifle innovative thinking?

摘要

Physiotherapy research activity, and the extent to whichour clinical practice appears supported by good science,has grown at a dramatic rate. There are now over 19 000clinical trials and almost 4000 systematic reviews relating tophysiotherapy practice published worldwide (PEDro 2013)and this is likely to continue to expand. The exponentialgrowth that has already occurred would have amazedphysiotherapy researchers of 40 or 50 years ago who, whilepublishing the results of their diverse research studies in awide range of general medical and physiotherapy journals,were seldom reporting randomised controlled trials.