Evidence-Based Critical Care

Abstract

Along with Springer International, I am pleased to offer you our new textbook entitled Hyzy’s Evidence-Based Critical Care Medicine: A Case Study Approach. In medicine, “teachable moments” usually occur in clinical context, where the engagement in a real case exemplifies principles of diagnosis or therapy. We have created our new textbook with the teaching moment in mind: each chapter begins with a real case gleaned from the authors’ clinical experience. In order to replicate the teaching dyad, each case poses a question which offers the reader to process and reflect on the components of the case before offering and answer. While medical practice attempts to be evidence-based, common approaches to diagnosis and management incorporate not only evidence but heuristics and biases which await either validation or repudiation. Hence, we have divided the discussion section of each chapter into two segments: the “Principles of Management” section and the “Evidence Contour” section. In the “Principles of Management” section, the common approach to the care of patients having a given condition is presented. Here you will find the nuts and bolts of what you need to know about the condition and the usual approach to diagnosis and treatment. Evidence-based approaches are emphasized, where appropriate. However, medical knowledge is ever evolving. The approach to many aspects of the diagnosis and treatment of a condition remains the subject of controversy. In the “Evidence Contour” section, each author discusses the aspects of diagnosis and management which are the subject of ongoing debate in the medical literature. In the way, the reader will appreciate not only what appears to be known but also what is becoming known about a given topic. We believe the approach we have taken with this textbook successfully bridges the gulf between the traditional encyclopedic sit-on-your-shelf textbook and the single-hit online reference, each of which lacks the contextual elements of effective learning. This is a new way to present knowledge in a medical textbook and should help critical care practitioners, fellows, residents, allied health professionals, and students expand their critical care knowledge in an efficient and effective manner. This approach should also benefit those preparing for board examinations.