[What is cognition-based medicine?].

Cognition-based medicine (CBM) is a newly-developed methodological system of scientific medicine. Its primary element is the criteria-based assessment of therapeutic causality at the level of the individual patient. Principles and criteria of single-case causality assessment have been analyzed and explicated. CBM enables a methodological professionalization of clinical judgment, as well as the explication of physician experience and expertise. CBM study designs expand the current range of clinical research, extending from criteria-based causality assessment in single cases to new forms of cohort evaluations.