Evidence-Based Family Medicine

Walter W Rosser, Sharon Shafir

B C Decker, $50, pp 180

ISBN 1 55009 053 4

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Evidence based care requires the use of the best external evidence in the care of patients, usually derived from studies of populations of patients and mostly disease oriented and quantitative in nature. Patient centred care, in contrast, emphasises concerns about illness rather than disease and incorporates qualitative data about the concerns and beliefs of individual patients.

Shared decision making, when patients as well as doctors have access to the relevant information, and in which the patients' values and preferences play an important role, is a way of bridging the gap between these two viewpoints. For it to be successful, however, doctors must be able to assess the information in the first place, as well as …