Why We Still Need HBV Population-Based Epidemiologic Studies

As a practicing physician, I face clinical problems every day. To solve them, I use clinical decision making skills including reaching the most accurate diagnosis and deciding on the next step or steps to manage the problem. A clinician is a pragmatic person; i.e., s/he needs practical, implementable data to guide reasoning or decision making and nothing else! In this environment, why is Mohammad Reza Ghadir’s article on the epidemiology of Hepatitis B virus infection in this issue of the journal at all? (1). Of course it is a Socratic question, and you may find me to be the author of similar articles (2).