Synonyms
Evidence based practice; Scientific medicine
Definition
Evidence based medicine (EBM) is the “conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients” [1].
Key Points
Although medical practice is historically based on observation and best attempts at scientific method, early medical practices often involved trial and error or observations of one or a few cases. In the last century, advances in research, experience, technology, and communications have moved medicine more towards practice based on established evidence.
Individuals especially responsible for promoting, developing, describing, and discussing EBM have included Archie Cochrane, David Sackett [1], and Gordon Guyatt [2]. The international Cochrane Collaboration [3] has emerged to continue to advance EBM throughout the world. This and several other organizations, such as the US Preventive Services Task Force [4], have assembled, analyzed, and graded...
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Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Gray JA, Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t. BMJ. 1996;312(7023):71–2.
Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. Evidence-based medicine. A new approach to teaching the practice of medicine. JAMA. 1992;268(17):2420–5.
The Cochrane Collaboration. 2007. Available online at http://www.cochrane.org. Accessed 30 Aug 2007.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. 2014. Available online at http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org. Accessed 7 Aug 2014.
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Weiner, M. (2018). Evidence-Based Medicine. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_156
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_156
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