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Biomedical subjects

H R Wulff

Publications and source records attributed to H R Wulff.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Philosophy of medicine--from a medical perspective.

In this commentary on the article by Arthur L. Caplan [1] the philosophy of medicine is viewed from a medical perspective. Philosophical studies have a long tradition in medicine, especially during periods of paradigmatic unrest, and they serve the same goal as other medical activities: the prevention and treatment of disease. The medical profession needs the help of professional philosophers in much the same way as it needs the cooperation of basic scientists. Philosophy of medicine may not deserve the status of a philosophical subspecialty or field, but is so closely linked to the main trends of contemporary medical thinking that it must be regarded as an emerging (or reemerging) medical subdiscipline.

Ethics, Medical

[Future medical research].

Medical progress requires a well-balanced research effort in a number of different fields, and this paper lists those types of research which will be needed in the future. The author analyses the foundation of clinical decisions and stresses the importance of continued biological laboratory research and controlled clinical studies. He also stresses the need for new types of research such as quality assurance, medical audit and humanistic studies (qualitative research, descriptive ethical studies and philosophical enquiries).

Decision Making

Magic of p values.

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Statistics as Topic

What do dentists know about statistics?

A multiple choice test with nine statistical questions was sent to a random sample of Danish dentists to assess their knowledge of elementary statistical expressions (SD, SE, P less than 0.05, P greater than 0.05 and r). Of 250 dentists, 129 (52%) answered the questions. The test was also completed by 27 (71%) of 38 dental students immediately after the last lecture in statistics. The median number of correct answers was 2.2 among the dentists and 3.4 among the dental students. It is concluded that the statistical knowledge of most dentists, and to a lesser degree also dental students, is so limited that they cannot be expected to be critically against or to draw the right conclusions from those statistical analyses with which they are confronted. Only 35% of the dentists stated that it is very important that this problem be raised.

Attitude of Health Personnel

Effect of omeprazole and cimetidine on prepyloric gastric ulcer: double blind comparative trial.

We conducted a six week double blind randomised study of 176 patients with prepyloric gastric ulcer to determine whether the proton pump inhibitor, omeprazole 30 mg daily would accelerate healing and pain relief, as compared with cimetidine 1 g daily. At two, four, and six weeks after entry ulcers healed in a larger percentage of patients treated with omeprazole (54, 81, and 86%) than of those treated with cimetidine (39, 73, and 78%) ('intention to treat' cohort; p less than 0.05 at two weeks). A higher proportion of patients on omeprazole became free of pain during the first week of treatment (p less than 0.05). No major clinical or biochemical side effects were noted. Omeprazole is an efficient treatment for patients with prepyloric gastric ulcers.

Adult

Single case studies. An introduction.

The limitations of conventional group comparative therapeutic trials are discussed. They include: the heterogeneity problem (due to biological variations within the sample) and the extrapolation problem (i.e. the problem of external validity). These problems may to some extent be overcome by multiple cross-over studies in a single patients. Such studies may be useful in selected cases in daily clinical work, but could also be used for detecting treatment effects in rare diseases. Usually, it is necessary to measure the clinical effect by means of clinical scores, for which reason ranking methods must be used. The statistical significance may be judged by means of a permutation test. The risk of committing a type II error in single patient studies is usually high.

Clinical Trials as Topic

Rational diagnosis and treatment.

Clinical decisionmaking includes reasoning from prescientific or scientific theories, reasoning from uncontrolled or controlled experience, and reasoning based on empathic understanding and moral beliefs. The development of contemporary clinical thinking is discussed, and it is found that successive generations of medical practitioners have had different views of the rationality and relative importance of these modes of reasoning: that which is considered rational by one generation of doctors is sometimes denounced by the next. The author's book, Rational Diagnosis and Treatment, which is an example of clinical thinking in the 1960s and early 70s, is used to illustrate one particular view of clinical decisionmaking.

Clinical Trials as Topic

Prophylactic effect of cimetidine in gastric ulcer patients.

Nineteen patients entered a double-blind randomized trial of the prophylactic effect of cimetidine in gastric ulcer disease. The diagnosis of gastric ulcer had been established endoscopically prior to the trial, but at the time of entry the patients were symptom-free and their ulcers had healed. The patients received either cimetidine, 400 mg twice daily or inactive tablets. Ten cimetidine-treated patients completed 12 months' treatment without suffering a recurrence of symptoms, whereas 5 of 9 placebo-treated patients suffered a symptomatic relapse after 7 to 18 weeks (P less than 0.025). In 4 of the 5 patients an ulcer was found at gastroscopy. It is concluded that maintenance treatment with cimetidine helps to prevent symptomatic relapses in gastric ulcer patients.

Adult