Evidence-Based Medicine

• Evidence-based medicine presupposes that we keep up-to-date, and
makes it worthwhile to take trips around the perimeter of our knowledge;
• Evidence-based medicine opens decision making processes to patients.
EBM forms part of the multifaceted process of assuring clinical effectiveness,
the main elements of which are:
- Production of evidence through research and scientific review.
- Production and dissemination of evidence-based clinical guidelines.
- Implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective practice through
education and management of change.
- Evaluation of compliance with agreed practice guidance and patient
outcomes – this process includes clinical audit.
Disadvantages
• It takes time to learn the methods and to put them into practice;
• There is the financial cost of buying and maintaining equipment;
• Medline and other electronic databases are not always comprehensive;
• Authoritarian practitioners may find these methods threatening.
• How do we balance cost and quality in healthcare
• Where should investments be made that improve care in a
cost effective way
• How do we engage patients more responsibility in
their care
• How do we maintain and enhance the professional integrity
of the caring professions
• How do we narrow the gap between knowledge and
practice
The practice of evidence-based medicine is the starting
point for answering these overarching questions.
Evidence-based medicine is not cookbook medicine; it is
a basis for the next generation of health delivery in
the Gulf States.
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