General public definition
- Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the routine integration into every health care encounter of three things:
- The experience and expertise of the clinician
- The best currently available clinical evidence obtained from systematic research (which is almost always published in peer-reviewed journals), and
- The wishes and concerns of the patient or client.
- EBM is now the accepted standard for clinical practice by all physicians and legitimate health care providers.
- When you first go to a new health care provider, ask them if they practise evidence-based medicine (to make sure that they know what it is).
Academic definition
- The term evidence-based medicine (EBM) was coined by Dr. Gordon Guyatt of McMaster University in 1992.25
- EBM is the routine integration into every health care encounter of the following:
- The experience and expertise of the clinician
- The best currently available clinical evidence obtained from systematic research, and
- The wishes and concerns of the patient or client.
- EBM makes decision-making in clinical practice more structured and objective by combining current population-based research findings with the practitioner’s clinical expertise in diagnosis and patient or client care and their compassionate awareness of the individual patient or client’s predicaments, rights, and preferences.26-29
- EBM is the accepted standard for legitimate clinical practice, and people should be encouraged to ask a new health care provider if they practise evidence-based medicine (to ensure that the provider knows what this means).
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