[Clinimetry (clinical studies)--an evaluation].

Clinical research in surgery is criticized now and then throughout the world because of its deficits in controlled clinical trials, the reduced spectrum of its clinical study types, and its methodological flaws. German surgery, however, has always shown reasonable standing in such areas of conflict by following a separate path: integration of clinimetric and biomedical research, Europeanizing clinical trials, clinical research in quality management and clinical practice guidelines, and installation of social psychology as basic science into outcome research. This separate path--in contrast to surgery in the U.S.--should, indeed, be followed insistently.