Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) -a short overview

Abstract

Evidence based medicine (EBM) is the conscientious, explicit, judicious and reasonable use of up to date, best evidence in making decisions about the individual patient health care. EBM integrates clinical experience and patient values with the best available research information. It is an ideas which aims to increase the use of high quality clinical research in clinical decision making. EBM requires new skills of the health practitioner, including efficient literature-searching, and the application of formal rules of evidence in evaluating the clinical literature. When somebody wants to practice EBM he has to identify gaps in knowledge and formulate questions to fill those gaps, to conduct an efficient search in medical literature, to critically evaluate the research information and to apply this information to patient’s care. EBM can minimize the errors in patient care, reduces the cost of treatment of the patient and optimizes the quality of patient care. The skills which has being learned when conducting EBM like those which were needed for being a lifelong, self- directed learner.