The purpose of this guide is to provide visitors with the most useful sources for gathering information on, and performing, evidence-based medicine. The information and the links provided here are intended for medical students, residents, faculty, practicing health professionals, and anyone who has an interest in evidence-based medicine.

Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research.

From Sackett, DL, et al. "Evidence based medicine: What it is and what it isn't." (BMJ 1996; 312: 71-2)

The EBM Pyramid

Arranged from most distilled at the top to least distilled at the bottom, the pyramid makes it easy to choose the best tool to answer any clinical question.

In recent years, medical publishers have responded to physicians needs for more bottom-line practice guidance with products and tools that purport to have an "evidence-based" focus.

The most heavily distilled information products are designed to allow physicians to quickly look up the best possible practice guidance, drawn from the latest randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews of the literature. Medical editors and reviewers are paid to regularly scan the clinical literature, review relevant new clinical trials and systematic reviews, and incorporate the latest evidence into these information products. Many primary-care questions can be answered by using these heavily distilled products.

Other clinically relevant information products, though less distilled, offer practitioners the option of gathering a larger pool of articles for review and evaluation. These products will be especially useful in specialized medicine, where a large body of literature does not already exist.