Beyond Evidence-Based Medicine. Clinical Pearls From Experienced Physicians

This textbook assembles the wealth of clinical experiences across multiple medical specialties and offers clinical pearls that will result in better patient care and are highly relevant to daily practice. This book has been compiled by many renowned clinicians, medical educators, and researchers who are experts in their respective disciplines across Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The chapters provide multiple cases in vignette format, illustrating the clinical pearls, and finish with a discussion and practical tips. This format will allow the reader to easily understand how the clinical pearls can be applied in clinical practice.

 Evidence-based medicine and clinical guidelines help us choose the best management and treatment options for our patients. However, many questions in medicine have not been researched or are not readily amenable to research. In fact, there is more to the art and mastery of practicing clinical medicine than the evidence-based approach. Information gained over years of reflective clinical practice and cumulative wisdom adds value to evidence-based clinical medicine. With experience and clinical gestalt playing an equal, if not a more prominent role than what evidence can offer in a physician’s approach to solving clinical problems, this book offers unique perspectives on the practice of medicine.

Beyond Evidence-Based Medicine: Clinical Pearls from Experienced Physicians will be valuable for later-year medical students, medical educators, doctors in training, and consultant physicians alike. Aiming to improve the day-to-day medical practices of professionals, the Editors have invited experienced physicians to share their expertise culminating in a unique book with broad applicability and appeal.

Dr Ralph Junckerstorff is an Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases physician at Monash Health in Melbourne, Victoria. He graduated from undergraduate medicine from the University of Western Australia in 2000 and became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2010. He also holds a Diploma of Tropical Medicine from the University of Liverpool (UK). 

Dr Junckerstorff has been involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching throughout his entire career. He strongly believes in evidence-based medicine but also feels that the knowledge gained from clinical experience is invaluable. He believes that excellence in teaching and mentorship has the power to shape and inspire.

Dr Sharmayne Brady is a senior staff specialist in Rheumatology at Alfred Health in Melbourne, Victoria. She studied undergraduate medicine at Monash University and finished her degree with first class honours. She completed an additional, elective, research degree in the subject of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, working with leaders in the fields of rheumatology and general medicine at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. She trained in adult general medicine at Alfred Health and completed her rheumatology specialist training at both the Alfred and Western Hospitals in Melbourne. 

Dr Brady completed her PhD in 2021 with Monash University working with internationally renowned osteoarthritis experts. She was supported by a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Clinical Postgraduate Research Scholarship. She has published 15 papers in leading peer-reviewed journals in the fields of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, back pain and vasculitis. Dr Brady has presented her research in several leading international and national conferences over the past 10 years. She is also involved with teaching, mentoring, and supervising medical students,physician and rheumatology trainees. She has also recently co-edited a medical textbook for junior doctors called 'Clinical Integration: Medicine', which was published in 2021.

Associate Professor Ar Kar Aung is a General and Infectious Diseases physician at Alfred Health in Melbourne, Victoria. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2004, attained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) in 2012 and Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh)(FRCP Edin) in 2022. He completed Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at James Cook University in 2015. He currently holds an adjunct clinical associate professor position at Monash University.
Dr Aung has strong interests in medical education, clinical medicine, quality improvement research, health service and clinical research, medication safety and adverse drug reactions. He was the former Chair of the Australian General and Acute Care Medicine Advance Training Committee at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), and former Director of Physician Education at Alfred Health. He also supervised and coordinated General and Acute Care Medicine advance training program at Alfred Health from 2015 to 2019. He has also served in various local and national leadership roles including, as a Board Director on the Internal Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand (IMSANZ) from 2018 to 2020, as the head of General Medicine research and as the Chair of Adverse Drug Reaction Review Committee at Alfred Health. He is currently the Chair of IMSANZ Research Network and Victorian metropolitan representative at the IMSANZ Council. 
He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, numerous clinical guidelines and book chapters and co-edited a medical textbook ‘Clinical Integration: Medicine’.