ABSTRACT
Indicators discussed in the previous chapter are epidemiological in nature, though applicable to individuals. They do assess particular aspects of health but are not directly used for diagnosis or prognosis. Clinimetrics is a science concerning the development and adequacy of quantitative measurements, particularly of composite nature such as scoring systems used for managing patients. The purpose again is to minimize the specter of uncertainty. Thus clinimetrics is statistical in content. Evidence-based medicine is the judicious use of currently available evidence
with a clinical acumen for making a decision in the best interest of individual patients. Evidence is obtained from the review of literature and other data, and thus is mostly empirical. Quite often it is quantitative rather than qualitative. Hence the overlap with clinimetrics is substantial. Both clinimetrics and evidence-based medicine are yet to carve a niche for
themselves in the field of patient management. Many of you may argue that the science of medicine is better off without such tools. Indeed, measurements and evidence may fail to match the experience and wisdom that some clinicians already have, or would acquire in future. Nonetheless the trend increasingly is to depend on quantitative assessments than on subjective evaluation, although this is not done at the cost of compromising the best judgment of a clinician.
