Povl Heiberg's 1897 methodological study on the statistical method as an aid in therapeutic trials.

Detection and evaluation of the effects of treatments was given impetus in the late 1800s by the arrival of some effective medical treatments, such as salicylic medicines, phenacetin, and diphtheria antitoxins (Morse, 1878; Roux et al., 1894; Sørensen, 1896; Fibiger, 1898; Haas, 1983; Hróbjartsson et al., 1998; Lafont, 2007). One remarkable commentator during this important period was the Danish physician Povl Heiberg (Gluud, 2008; Gluud and Hilden, 2008). In an article published in 1897 Heiberg comments on the fruitlessness of arguments among specialists whose opinions are based on weak evidence (Heiberg, 1897). Instead Heiberg proposes that scientific evidence about the effects of interventions should be sought using “statistical-therapeutic experiments, with the real aim of finding a safe and common therapy that every unbiased physician is obliged to give” to the patient (Heiberg, 1897). The clarity of Heiberg's 1897 article is very impressive, and it is difficult to imagine that it was written more than a century ago.