Evidence-Based Medicine for Healthcare Professionals: What is Evidence-based Medicine?

These resources aim to provide healthcare professionals to understand the theory behind EBM and how to search the literature for EBM.

What is Evidence-based Medicine?

Evidence-based Medicine --

--(EBM) uses the scientific method to organize and apply current data to improve healthcare decisions. Thus, the best available science is combined with the healthcare professional's clinical experience and the patient's values to arrive at the best medical decision for the patient. 

 There are 5 main steps for applying EBM to clinical practice:

  • Defining a clinically relevant question

  • Searching for the best evidence

  • Critically appraising the evidence

  • Applying the evidence

  • Evaluating the performance of EBM

Tenny S, Varacallo M. Evidence Based Medicine. [Updated 2022 Oct 24]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470182/