Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association logoLink to Bulletin of the Medical Library Association
. 1998 Jan;86(1):40–45.

Who needs evidence-based health care?

J Tsafrir 1, M Grinberg 1
PMCID: PMC226324  PMID: 9549011

Abstract

The vast amount of published material in clinical and biomedical sciences, and conflicting results on diagnostic and therapeutic procedures may introduce doubts in decision-making for patient care. Information retrieving skills and the critical appraisal of published literature, together with elaboration of practice guidelines based on epidemiological methodology, form the basis of the trend towards evidence-based health care, which aims to overcome these problems. A survey conducted by questionnaire at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center analyzed which types of information sources are considered most relevant and useful for patient care by a cross-section of physicians with varying degrees of experience. They considered review articles and meta-analyses extremely reliable for information purposes, while for practical patient-care purposes they tended to rely more on the opinions of peers and experts. As the requirements of evidence-based health care may influence the attitudes of clinicians to the published literature and its evaluation, they have implications for medical libraries and information centers. Specifically, information specialists will be called upon more and more to impart information-retrieval and critical appraisal skills to clinicians. The involvement of information specialists in information gathering and selection will provide added value to the expertise and knowledge of in-house experts for decision-making.

Full text

PDF
40

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Begg C., Cho M., Eastwood S., Horton R., Moher D., Olkin I., Pitkin R., Rennie D., Schulz K. F., Simel D. Improving the quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials. The CONSORT statement. JAMA. 1996 Aug 28;276(8):637–639. doi: 10.1001/jama.276.8.637. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Buckley N. A., Smith A. J. Evidence-based medicine in toxicology: where is the evidence? Lancet. 1996 Apr 27;347(9009):1167–1169. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)90615-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Carr-Hill R. Welcome? To the brave new world of evidence based medicine. Soc Sci Med. 1995 Dec;41(11):1467–1468. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(95)00351-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Davidoff F., Case K., Fried P. W. Evidence-based medicine: why all the fuss? Ann Intern Med. 1995 May 1;122(9):727–727. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-122-9-199505010-00012. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dickersin K., Min Y. I. Publication bias: the problem that won't go away. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1993 Dec 31;703:135–148. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1993.tb26343.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Dickersin K., Scherer R., Lefebvre C. Identifying relevant studies for systematic reviews. BMJ. 1994 Nov 12;309(6964):1286–1291. doi: 10.1136/bmj.309.6964.1286. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Doyle J. D. Knowledge-based information management: implications for information services. Med Ref Serv Q. 1994 Summer;13(2):85–97. doi: 10.1300/J115V13N02_08. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group Evidence-based medicine. A new approach to teaching the practice of medicine. JAMA. 1992 Nov 4;268(17):2420–2425. doi: 10.1001/jama.1992.03490170092032. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Eysenck H. J. Meta-analysis and its problems. BMJ. 1994 Sep 24;309(6957):789–792. doi: 10.1136/bmj.309.6957.789. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Fowler P. B. Evidence-based medicine. Lancet. 1995 Sep 23;346(8978):838–838. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Freemantle N., Mason J. M., Haines A., Eccles M. P. CONSORT: an important step toward evidence-based health care. Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials. Ann Intern Med. 1997 Jan 1;126(1):81–83. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-126-1-199701010-00011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Grégoire G., Derderian F., Le Lorier J. Selecting the language of the publications included in a meta-analysis: is there a Tower of Babel bias? J Clin Epidemiol. 1995 Jan;48(1):159–163. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(94)00098-b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. How to read clinical journals: I. why to read them and how to start reading them critically. Can Med Assoc J. 1981 Mar 1;124(5):555–558. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. How to read clinical journals: V: To distinguish useful from useless or even harmful therapy. Can Med Assoc J. 1981 May 1;124(9):1156–1162. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Ives D. G., Traven N. D., Kuller L. H., Schulz R. Selection bias and nonresponse to health promotion in older adults. Epidemiology. 1994 Jul;5(4):456–461. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199407000-00013. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Lewis S. Paradox, process and perception: the role of organizations in clinical practice guidelines development. CMAJ. 1995 Oct 15;153(8):1073–1077. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. McCarthy L. H. Evidence-based medicine: an opportunity for health sciences librarians. Med Ref Serv Q. 1996 Winter;15(4):63–71. doi: 10.1300/J115V15N04_06. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Mead T. L., Richards D. T. Librarian participation in meta-analysis projects. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1995 Oct;83(4):461–464. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Naylor C. D. Grey zones of clinical practice: some limits to evidence-based medicine. Lancet. 1995 Apr 1;345(8953):840–842. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(95)92969-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Rafuse J. Evidence-based medicine means MDs must develop new skills, attitudes, CMA conference told. CMAJ. 1994 May 1;150(9):1479–1481. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rees J. Where medical science and human behaviour meet. BMJ. 1995 Apr 1;310(6983):850–853. doi: 10.1136/bmj.310.6983.850. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Rosenberg W., Donald A. Evidence based medicine: an approach to clinical problem-solving. BMJ. 1995 Apr 29;310(6987):1122–1126. doi: 10.1136/bmj.310.6987.1122. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Sackett D. L., Rosenberg W. M., Gray J. A., Haynes R. B., Richardson W. S. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ. 1996 Jan 13;312(7023):71–72. doi: 10.1136/bmj.312.7023.71. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Sørensen T. I. Which patients may be harmed by good treatments? Lancet. 1996 Aug 10;348(9024):351–352. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)64988-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Tanenbaum S. J. What physicians know. N Engl J Med. 1993 Oct 21;329(17):1268–1271. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199310213291713. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Urquhart C. J., Hepworth J. B. Comparing and using assessments of the value of information to clinical decision-making. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1996 Oct;84(4):482–489. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Bulletin of the Medical Library Association are provided here courtesy of Medical Library Association

RESOURCES