How much gold is the “gold standard”?

Abstract

The article sets the goal to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the so-called “gold standard”, which sets the basic principles and guidelines for the study of the effectiveness of treatment methods and pharmacological drugs in modern medicine, allowing asserting the making of the phenomenon of “evidence-based medicine”. Its origins, the diversity of research methods in this area of medical thought, as well as a peculiar opposition to “tra­ditional” medicine, which assumes reliance on the experience of a particular doctor, forming of her/his reputation (authority based medicine), are pointed out. We claim that the key ideas of evidence-based medicine are in some ways in conflict with the idea of personalized medicine. Evidence-based medicine conceptualized from the angle of theories of scientific knowledge growth and the abstraction theory. Attention payed to the financial and economic aspects that relate to the prospects for the development and acceptance of evidence-based medicine. Finally, attention drawn to the possible limits of applicability of evidence-based medicine methods and recommendations. Finally, attention is drawn to the possible limits to the applicability of evidence-based medicine, which leads to the idea of a kind of comple­mentarity between gold standard medicine and medical practice of traditional medicine which shapes the experience and treatment methods of a particular physician.