I was an Intern scurrying behind my busy Attending as she flew down the hospital corridor, her long white coat snapping at my knees, when I first heard the words anecdotal evidence.  I recognized the term, it included my favorite sixth grade vocabulary word, but I never heard the words until she spit them out of her mouth like spoiled milk.  Anecdotal evidence.   How detestable.  Of zero consequence, not to be trusted.  My love of the short, amusing story squashed under her squeaking clogs.

But I could not let it go.  After three years of residency and ten working the same kinds of heavily waxed hospital corridors I still can’t.  I agree that it is dangerous to try to find the truth based on a single or a few experiences.  The scientific method of experimentation to prove the truth, and repeatedly prove it, has allowed society to advance beyond what our ancestors would have thought possible.  But…I think there’s a place to have an opinion, or belief, or idea that’s based on personal experience.  Is it a fact, is it a truth?  I’ve been a doctor long enough to realize what we thought was truth based on all our available studies can often become disproved with new research.  So I’ll let them keep their evidence-based medicine and I’ll practice my anecdotal medicine on this blog.  I’ll tell stories about myself and people I know and maybe they’ll be helpful, maybe they’ll be informative, but at least they might be interesting and amusing.