Commentary: In pursuit of the 'best' possible evidence in investigations of breast implants and connective tissue disease

Clinical medicine and public health organizations rely on epidemiology to play an integral role in evidencebased medicine. As epidemiologists, we are constantly striving to provide the best evidence with the goal of influencing public health and clinical practice for the better. With this overall objective in mind, studies are planned in excruciating detail and executed with painstaking care. After the data are collected and all analyses have been conducted, results are prepared for public dissemination. Sometimes, even when the optimal study has been conducted given the study population and subject matter, the investigators are left to excoriate their work in the ‘strengths and limitations’ section of the paper. The investigators do this even if their evidence is the best possible evidence and an improvement over prior evidence. In the current edition of the International Journal of