Complex older people and evidence-based information
Dr Colin Mitchell a explains how the evidence-based information in BMJ Best Practice helps to inform the care that he provides.
By Dr Colin Mitchell
Oct 01, 2020
In this interview we speak to Colin Mitchell who is a Consultant Geriatrician and Head of Specialty for Geriatrics at Imperial College London. Colin manages an inpatient ward for complex older people, runs a specialist falls clinic and works with community multidisciplinary teams. Colin explains how the evidence based information in BMJ Best Practice helps to inform the care that he provides.
“Clinical decision support tools should be reliable, rigorous and able to spot things that we may forget due to human error. Humans might be inspired, but we’re not always reliable and rigorous, so a clinical decision support system should be able to overcome natural human limitations.”
“Clinical decision support tools should be reliable, rigorous and able to spot things that we may forget due to human error. Humans might be inspired, but we’re not always reliable and rigorous, so a clinical decision support system should be able to overcome natural human limitations."
Dr Colin Mitchell
“In geriatrics the majority of our patients wouldn’t be included in therapeutic trials, either due to age or their pre-existing conditions. This is why we almost always have to base our interventions on the extrapolation of evidence or best practice over time.”
“Despite not being a speciality that necessarily requires cutting edge therapeutic trials, having access to updated credible information still has value. Irrespective of whether I care about a trial result or if the trial really applies to my patients, if something has been done using a methodology that is both pragmatic and evidence-based, then that certainly carries weight and helps inform my future care.”
