Evidence based medicine: does it make a difference?: Make it evidence informed practice with a little wisdom

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7482.92-a

BMJ 2005;330:92 (8 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7482.92-a

Letter

Evidence based medicine: does it make a difference?

Make it evidence informed practice with a little wisdom

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In the theme issue on whether evidence based medicinemakes a difference Gabbay and le May ask whether guidelinesare evidence based or "mindlines" that have been constructedcollectively.¹ It is clearly time to change "evidence basedmedicine" to "evidence informed practice."² Although "EBMers"have emphasised the importance of patients' values in decisionmaking, this is missed in most discussions.

So that evidence is not displaced by mutant memes on the excusethat evidence ignores values and context (it doesn't), I suggestthe era of evidence informed rather than evidence based medicinehas arrived. I imagine patients would be either puzzled or concernedby this article and the subsequent discussion.³

When I am a patient I would like the (shared) decision makingin the consultation to be informed by current best evidencefor my condition. That doesn't mean a slavish obedience to resultsfrom randomised controlled trials. It . . . [Full text of this article]

Paul Glasziou, general practitioner

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF Paul.glasziou@public-health.oxford.ac.uk

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