In this paper, I provide an introduction for biostatisticians and others to some recent work in the philosophy of medicine. Firstly, I give an overview of some philosophical arguments that are thought to create problems for a prominent approach towards establishing causal claims in medicine, namely, the Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) approach. Secondly, I provide an overview of further recent work in the philosophy of medicine, which argues that mechanistic studies can help to address these problems. Lastly, I describe a novel approach for establishing causal claims in medicine that has been informed by this recent work in the philosophy of medicine, namely, the EBM+ approach.
Keywords: Evidence-based medicine; mechanistic studies; philosophy of medicine.
© 2022 the author(s), published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.