EBM combines clinical experience with the current best
available evidence to make informed decisions regarding care of individual
patients.
Frequently, in caring for patients, clinical questions will arise concerning
prognosis, treatment and outcome of various illnesses. Information found
in textbooks is often outdated by the time publication occurs. Many
of these questions have already been answered in patient centered clinical
research found in medical journals. With training and practice, clinicians
can become proficient at obtaining clinically relevant answers to their
clinical questions by searching the medical literature. This combination
of clinical expertise and evidence found in the literature is a powerful
tool that will result in improved patient care. We call this process
Information Mastery.
Learning EBM involves Three Major Steps:
1. Asking answerable questions
(PICO)
2. Searching the literature
3. Critically analyzing
the literature
Finally, once completing these steps you act on the evidence for your
patients! A nice summary article is availabe at the BMJ site here: What
is EBM?
1. Slawson DC, Shaughnessy AF, Bennett JH. Becoming
a Medical Information Master: Feeling Good About Not Knowing Everything.
JABFP 1994;38:505-13.
2. Shaughnessy AF, Slawson DC, Bennett JH. Becoming
a Medical Information Master: A Guidebook to the Medical Information
Jungle. Journal Fam Pract 1994;39:489-99.
3. Center for Evidence Based Medicine. Evidence-Based
Medicine. What it is and what it isn't. Accessed 02April2004 at: http://www.cebm.net
