Introduction to Clinical Therapeutics
http://www.100md.com
《新英格兰医药杂志》
Five years ago, the Journal introduced Clinical Practice, a series of review articles intended to provide practical guidance in the diagnosis, evaluation, and management of clinical problems at the interface of primary and specialty care. Our goal was to combine in a concise format a critical review of the literature with practical advice about management. Authors are chosen for their established expertise in a subject area and asked to provide clinical recommendations, specifying whether these are supported by rigorous data.
In this issue of the Journal, we introduce a related series of review articles entitled Clinical Therapeutics. Like Clinical Practice articles, Clinical Therapeutics articles will be authored by established experts in the field and are intended to be concise, practical, and directed primarily to a clinical audience. Rather than focusing on a clinical problem and the various approaches to management, each Clinical Therapeutics article will focus on a specific therapy for a given clinical problem; topics covered will include not only medications, but also devices and procedures.
The format of Clinical Therapeutics will be modeled on that of Clinical Practice. Each article will begin with a clinical vignette, followed by a brief description of the general clinical problem and of the particular therapy to be discussed. Subsequent sections will discuss the effects of the therapy, evidence from the medical literature (in particular, data from clinical trials when available) that supports or fails to support its use, a detailed description of how the therapy is used, adverse effects, and areas of uncertainty. As in the Clinical Practice series, a section on guidelines from major professional societies (if any) will be included, and each article will end with the author's own recommendations.
Clinical Therapeutics articles will complement the related Drug Therapy series. Drug Therapy articles, which are considerably longer and more detailed than those planned for Clinical Therapeutics, are intended to provide a comprehensive discussion of the pharmacology of an agent, or class of agents, including details of the basic science underlying the therapeutic effects. The Clinical Therapeutics series will provide a much briefer overview that will focus primarily on providing the practical information most relevant to patient care.
The need for practical guidance in the use of therapies has steadily been increasing. Rapid growth in the fields of genetics, immunology, molecular biology, and other basic sciences has expanded the range of potential therapeutic targets; advances in biotechnology, bioengineering, and technology transfer have accelerated the development of new therapeutic approaches and ideas; and decreases in the duration of regulatory review by the Food and Drug Administration have facilitated the more rapid approval of new therapies and their introduction into the clinical arena. Acknowledging the challenges inherent in keeping abreast of these rapid advances, we will keep the focus of the Clinical Therapeutics series on relatively new drugs, devices, and procedures. We will also include reviews of established therapies that remain fundamental to the clinician's armamentarium, however, especially when new data are available or controversy exists regarding clinical use.
We hope that readers of the Journal, particularly those who are active clinicians, will find the articles in the Clinical Therapeutics series to be practical and reliable guides for the use of therapeutic agents in patient care. We encourage readers to recommend topics of interest and have established a separate e-mail address (clinicaltherapeutics@nejm.org) for readers to submit their ideas or comments regarding the new series.(John A. Jarcho, M.D., Jul)
In this issue of the Journal, we introduce a related series of review articles entitled Clinical Therapeutics. Like Clinical Practice articles, Clinical Therapeutics articles will be authored by established experts in the field and are intended to be concise, practical, and directed primarily to a clinical audience. Rather than focusing on a clinical problem and the various approaches to management, each Clinical Therapeutics article will focus on a specific therapy for a given clinical problem; topics covered will include not only medications, but also devices and procedures.
The format of Clinical Therapeutics will be modeled on that of Clinical Practice. Each article will begin with a clinical vignette, followed by a brief description of the general clinical problem and of the particular therapy to be discussed. Subsequent sections will discuss the effects of the therapy, evidence from the medical literature (in particular, data from clinical trials when available) that supports or fails to support its use, a detailed description of how the therapy is used, adverse effects, and areas of uncertainty. As in the Clinical Practice series, a section on guidelines from major professional societies (if any) will be included, and each article will end with the author's own recommendations.
Clinical Therapeutics articles will complement the related Drug Therapy series. Drug Therapy articles, which are considerably longer and more detailed than those planned for Clinical Therapeutics, are intended to provide a comprehensive discussion of the pharmacology of an agent, or class of agents, including details of the basic science underlying the therapeutic effects. The Clinical Therapeutics series will provide a much briefer overview that will focus primarily on providing the practical information most relevant to patient care.
The need for practical guidance in the use of therapies has steadily been increasing. Rapid growth in the fields of genetics, immunology, molecular biology, and other basic sciences has expanded the range of potential therapeutic targets; advances in biotechnology, bioengineering, and technology transfer have accelerated the development of new therapeutic approaches and ideas; and decreases in the duration of regulatory review by the Food and Drug Administration have facilitated the more rapid approval of new therapies and their introduction into the clinical arena. Acknowledging the challenges inherent in keeping abreast of these rapid advances, we will keep the focus of the Clinical Therapeutics series on relatively new drugs, devices, and procedures. We will also include reviews of established therapies that remain fundamental to the clinician's armamentarium, however, especially when new data are available or controversy exists regarding clinical use.
We hope that readers of the Journal, particularly those who are active clinicians, will find the articles in the Clinical Therapeutics series to be practical and reliable guides for the use of therapeutic agents in patient care. We encourage readers to recommend topics of interest and have established a separate e-mail address (clinicaltherapeutics@nejm.org) for readers to submit their ideas or comments regarding the new series.(John A. Jarcho, M.D., Jul)