Practice of evidence-based medicine

The aim of evidence-based medicine" (EBM) is to provide the best available clinical evidence in order to guide individual diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. Extent and quality of medical evidence are based on clinical and scientific data published as case reports and case series, cross-sectional and longitudinal clinical trials and systematic reviews. At present, health care practitioners can take advantage of several extensive clinical and EBM-databases, which increasingly have an impact on clinical practice. The use of electronic databases is a fast, precise and systematic way to access scientific data and their evaluation by EBM-standards. EBM-evaluated data are generally thought to substantially contribute to high quality standards in clinical practice and to individual clinical management. Thus, EBM provides a scientific framework for objective clinical decisions by taking into account both the patient's individual history as well as the therapist's subjective experience. This approach can have a beneficial effect primarily for patients, but also for professionals involved in clinical management.