CfP: Mechanisms in Medicine, Conference, 3-5 July 2017, Canterbury, Kent
July 3-5 2017
Centre for Reasoning, University
of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Keynote speakers
Raffaela Campaner
(University of Bologna)
Daniel Commenges (Bordeaux
Population Health Research Center)
Jeremy Howick (Oxford
University)
Stathis Psillos (University
of Athens)
Daniel Steel (The University
of British Columbia)
Kurt Straif (International
Agency for Research on Cancer)
John Worrall (London School
of Economics)
Background
Evidence-based medicine
(EBM) is a relatively recent technique for supporting clinical decisions by the
current best evidence. While it is uncontroversial that we should use the
current best evidence in clinical decision making, it is highly controversial as
to what the best evidence is. EBM considers evidence from clinical trials, in
particular, randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews of those trials,
to be the best evidence. On the other hand, evidence of mechanisms that is
obtained by means other than clinical trials is considered to be of low
quality.
However, there is a growing
body of literature that highlights the many benefits of considering evidence of
mechanisms alongside evidence from clinical trials. For instance, evidence of
mechanisms is crucial for interpreting clinical trials, establishing a causal
claim, and extrapolating from the trial population to the treatment population.
This conference seeks to
explore whether and in which ways evidence of mechanism may improve medical
decision making. The conference will bring together philosophers and medical
researchers.
Call for papers
Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words
on or before 1st February 2017 via email to c.wallmann-520@kent.ac.uk. The final decision on submissions
will be made by 1st March. A special session will be dedicated to
contributions submitted by PhD candidates.
Contributions should address
questions such as the following:
How can we get evidence of mechanisms in medicine?
How can evidence of mechanisms best be
considered alongside evidence of correlation to evaluate causal claims in
medical research and health policy?
How can quality of evidence of mechanisms be
characterised?
Which accounts of causality best fit the
programme for integrating evidence of mechanisms with evidence of correlation?
How can evidence of mechanisms be employed in
extrapolation?
How can evidence of mechanisms inform
statistical and graphical models in medicine?
Organisation
This conference is organised
by Christian Wallmann on behalf of the Centre for Reasoning
at the University of Kent and the EBM+ consortium.
It is an activity of the project Evaluating evidence in
medicine, funded by the UK
Arts and Humanities Research Council.
For any queries please
contact Christian Wallmann: c.wallmann-520@kent.ac.uk