Standard abstract review disclaimer

by dr-exmedic

If you’re reading a post that links to this page, know that the post is a review of a scientific abstract, not a complete article.  It is most likely from one of the big emergency medicine organization scientific meetings (either ACEP or SAEM).  Any abstract review can be interesting, but comes with a couple of caveats:

  1. I can’t assess the underlying science.  This limits how applicable it is to real life, and it’s your best guess as to whether or not the data is accurate in the first place.
  2. If I didn’t link directly to the abstract, it’s because I can’t.
  3. You must absolutely not actually practice medicine based on them.  They are frequently tantalizing bits of info that might lead to bigger and better studies (and suggest what the future might hold) or are useless factoids.  In either case, there is some reason that the abstract is being presented in a group setting rather than being published as a whole journal article.

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