The Art of Evidence and the Morality of Medical Decisions

This essay looks at epistemological challenges to the tenets of evidencebased medicine (EBM) by focusing on some of the ways that statistical data is presented as evidence. Using a framework from the history quantification and digitization in biomedicine, I discuss the uses of the “graphic method” and the status of producing pictures from numbers. The essay draws attention to the complicated relationship between statistical representation within EBM and the way risk factors are communicated in the physicianpatient relationship for decision-making. The essay questions the position of morality underlying the art of evidence.This essay was originally presented at Social Medicine Grand Rounds, UCSF, May 2, 2007. Revised with updated references for digital publication May 2020