Patients with Renal Disease: From Poetry to Evidence Based Medicine. Is there a Place for Bioethics?

Abstract

Why some patients with renal disease start to compose poetry? They concord that this is a supplement to their clinical history and a help to physicians. They underline that poetry does not get rid of Evidencce Based Medicine (EBM) and of its scientific basis, but they find in it a support to their soul voice. It is a supplement of clinical practice and an extra kick to progress toward the hope of a better lifetime. Poetry is a help that a man offers to other men, a guide to avoid or to lessen pain and mistake. If poetry is a supplement of clinical practice, EBM has a privileged role in accompanying it when it enters in the dialysis ward. On the other hand, EBM is strictly tied up to bioethics guiding every clinical approach; then a “red thread” makes a sound choice by applying poetry to nephrology and EBM. The poetry of three renal patients explains the development of a comprehensive bioethical principle and gives us a guide to its application in everyday clinical activity. Talking about EBM and poor importance nowadays somebody gives it, an outstanding medical journal published these ironic alternatives to it: Eminence based medicine, Vehemence based medicine, Eloquence based medicine, Providence based medicine, Diffidence based medicine, Nervousness based medicine. (Bioethics)