Title: How to put individual patient’s values back into EBM to improve treatments for our patients?
Abstract: The original version of evidence-based medicine (EBM) was meant to combine best research evidence with clinical experience and individual patient’s values. As we know, however, the latter two elements have almost completely fallen by the wayside in recent decades: EBM produces group-level statistics that needs to be translated into individual care decisions by the clinician and the patient. The recognition of this led to the parallel development of a complementary framework of clinical theory and skills in medicine: values-based practice (VBP). In my talk, I will use clinical examples in borderline personality disorder, dementia, and depression/suicide risk management to demonstrate the usefulness of working with patient’s values. I will also describe the accumulating evidence-base in this area and some current and potential future programmes to integrate our patients’ values into psychiatric research in order to improve treatments.
Biography: Robert Dudas is a Consultant Psychiatrist working in Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge. He is also an Affiliated Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge. He has combined clinical work, academic research, and teaching and in his research he has used a wide range of approaches from neuropsychology, through brain imaging and experimental research, to meta-analyses in a variety of conditions, including borderline personality disorder, autism, depression, and dementia. His recent book published with CUP, Values in Psychiatry: Managing Complexity and Advancing Solutions, explores the role of values in the development and recovery from mental illness as well as progressive developments in psychiatry, and outlines a new research methodology to address the challenge of integrating the biological, psychological, social, and existential dimensions of mental illness.
Zoom details:
https://zoom.us/j/93711378882?pwd=ONUDhocbW7ucS5dRak0RGdZBC27ynz.1
Meeting ID: 937 1137 8882
Passcode: 845614
Posted on 20/01/2026
