Evidence-Based Practice for Rehabilitation Professionals: Concepts and Controversies

This article describes evidence-based practice (EBP) in the health professions and sciences in general and in the rehabilitation disciplines specifically. It discusses the following: what counts as evidence and how that has changed over the last 4 decades, trends in the short history of evidence-based medicine and EBP, the fallacious nature of most criticisms of EBP, (perceived) shortcomings of clinical research and the resulting evidence in rehabilitation, resources available to clinicians who want their practice to be evidence-based, and the barriers these clinicians face in keeping up with the evidence and applying it in practice. Lastly, it describes how the development of a new art and science, knowledge translation, may play a role in truly making EBP feasible in rehabilitation services.