Counterpoint: Epidemiology to Guide Decision-Making: Moving Away From Practice-Free Research

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Analyses of observational data aimed at supporting decision-making are ideally framed as a contrast between well-defined treatment strategies. These analyses compare individuals' outcomes from the start of the treatment strategies under consideration. Exceptions to this synchronizing of the start of follow-up and the treatment strategies may be justified on a case-by-case basis.