What is evidence-based medicine?

In addition to information gained from studies, the knowledge and experience of medical experts is still very important: In practice, a doctor, physiotherapist or caregiver has to decide whether and how the available scientific knowledge can be used to help an individual patient. An evidence-based approach also includes informing patients about the pros and cons of medical options so that they can actively be part of the decision.

So making a treatment decision in accordance with EBM means basing it on the best available knowledge from clinical research and medical practice. A number of factors play an important role in the decision. As well as the type and severity of the health problem, these include the person's general life situation, personal values and opinions.

So many medical publications appear worldwide every day that it is no longer possible for an individual medical professional to keep up with the latest state of knowledge. In order to offer support and to encourage new medical research, EBM provides a toolbox of different methods. These tools can be divided into three categories:

• The first category includes methods that serve to create reliable new knowledge: Someone who would like to compare the advantages and disadvantages of different drugs, for example, will find suitable types of studies here.
• The second category involves methods that help to summarize the existing knowledge on a subject: They serve to find and select the previously published studies that are best able to answer a particular question. There are now networks of researchers that specialize in looking for the latest research findings and summarizing them to provide easily accessible information.
• The third category covers methods for presenting information to medical professionals and laypeople in a way that helps them to find, understand and make use of it.

The main aim is always to find out what kind of care is most suitable for a particular patient – and how to incorporate their individual preferences and circumstances into the treatment decision.