Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 26, 2024; 12(9): 1555-1559
Published online Mar 26, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i9.1555
Using clinical cases to guide healthcare
Michael Colwill, Samantha Baillie, Richard Pollok, Andrew Poullis
Michael Colwill, Samantha Baillie, Richard Pollok, Andrew Poullis, Department of Gastroenterology, St George's University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London SW17 0QT, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Colwill M and Poullis A designed the research; Colwill M performed the literature review; Colwill M wrote the initial paper and Colwill M, Poullis A, Pollok R and Baillie S were all involved in manuscript review.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Michael Colwill, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, Doctor, Research Fellow, Department of Gastroenterology, St George's University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0QT, United Kingdom. michael.colwill@nhs.net
Received: December 29, 2023
Peer-review started: December 29, 2023
First decision: January 20, 2024
Revised: January 26, 2024
Accepted: February 27, 2024
Article in press: February 27, 2024
Published online: March 26, 2024
Processing time: 86 Days and 20.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Evidence-based practice is used by physicians to select the optimum treatment for their patients. The hierarchy of evidence lists systematic reviews and meta-analyses as the highest quality of evidence however this is not always appropriate or possible which is when clinical cases, either as case-control studies or case reports, can be utilised. This paper will look at the strength and weaknesses of these methodologies and use recent examples to demonstrate the impact they can have on clinical practice.