Evidence-based Medicine: How to Practice and Teach EBM

Abstract

Evidence-based Healthcare: How to Make Health Policy and Management Decisions, by J. A. Muir Gray, 270 pp, with illus, paper, $29.95, ISBN 0-443-05721-4, New York, NY, Churchill Livingstone, 1997. We develop clinical expertise with bedside training and experience. How well do we integrate this experience with the best available external evidence for the purpose of direct patient care? I suspect that we do not carry out this function very well. Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) is the practice of applying valid evidence and data to a specific clinical question engendered during patient care. Lately, EBM has been on the lips and pen tips of clinicians, perhaps as a close runner-up to the other shibboleths managed care, gag clause, and networking. Is EBM then another mere mantra, a novel paradigm, or a practicable concept to help with ordinary, day-to-day clinical care? I believe it is the last, but you should be