The practice of evidence based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research. By individual clinical expertise we mean the proficiency and judgment that individual clinicians acquire through clinical experience and clinical practice. Increased expertise is reflected in many ways, but especially in more effective and efficient diagnosis and in the more thoughtful identification and compassionate use of individual patients' predicaments, rights, and preferences in making clinical decisions about their care. By best available external clinical evidence we mean clinically relevant research, often from the basic sciences of medicine, but especially from patient centered clinical research into the accuracy and precision of diagnostic tests (including the clinical examination), the power of prognostic markers, and the efficacy and safety of therapeutic, rehabilitative, and preventive regimens.

Objectives

After studying the information presented, the reader should be able to:

• Define evidence-based practice
• List the five major steps that make up the implementation of evidence-based practice
• Discuss how all clinical professions can use evidence-based practice
• Provide a brief history of integrating evidence-based practice in radiology
• List the steps to take to initiate the implementation of evidence-based practice
• Provide three reasons why clinicians should ‘bother’ with evidence-based practice