title: Case reports in the era of clinical trials.
abstract: Once upon a time, case reports were the primary content of scholarly medical journals. Case reports are still common but have come to be viewed more often than not as anecdotes rather than evidence. And even though David Sackett referred to the important link between clinical expertise and external evidence,(1) the "gold standard" today is the randomized controlled clinical trial. Why is this?
authors.affiliation: David Riley, MD, is the editor in chief of Global Advances in Health and Medicine , United States.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Riley
keywords: CARE guidelines; Case reports; clinical trials; evidence