Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Resources

"Evidence-Based Medicine is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values."

Source: Sackett DL, Straus SE, Richardson WS, et al. Evidence-based medicine: how to practice and teach EBM. 2d ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2000.

"Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is an approach to health care that promotes the collection, interpretation, and integration of valid, important and applicable patient-reported, clinician-observed, and research-derived evidence. The best available evidence, moderated by patient circumstances and preferences, is applied to improve the quality of clinical judgments."

Source: McKibbon, K.A. et al. (1995) The medical literature as a resource for evidence based care. Working Paper from the Health Information Research Unit, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.

Many different terms and acronyms are used to describe Evidence-Based Clinical Practice. While evidence-based medicine (EBM) is frequently used as a generic term for all evidence-based practice, other terms and acronyms are often found in the literature and are outlined below.

This guide will use the EBM acronym.

- Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)
- Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)
- Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC)
- Evidence-Based Dentistry (EBD)
- Evidence-Based Nursing (EBN)
- Evidence-Based Public Health (EBPH)