Evidence-based medicine
Evidence-based medicine integrates the best available research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values when making healthcare decisions.
PICO framework: A framework for structuring clinical questions around population, intervention, comparison, and outcome. It turns a patient problem into a searchable question.
Randomized controlled trial: A study that assigns participants to interventions by chance to compare their effects. Random allocation can reduce confounding when estimating treatment effects.
Archie Cochrane: A British physician and epidemiologist who argued for reliable evidence on the effects of medical care. His 1972 critique called for systematic evaluation of healthcare interventions.
Expert opinion: A judgment based on a person's specialized knowledge and experience rather than a formal synthesis of research. Clinical expertise matters, but expertise alone does not replace appraisal of research.
Cochrane Library: A collection of databases that includes Cochrane systematic reviews and other evidence resources. It gives clinicians and researchers access to synthesized healthcare evidence.
Systematic review: A review that uses explicit, reproducible methods to find and synthesize studies addressing a focused question. It gathers relevant studies more systematically than an informal literature search.
Observational study: A study in which researchers observe exposures and outcomes without assigning interventions. It supplies evidence when random assignment is impractical or unethical, but is more vulnerable to confounding.
David Sackett: A Canadian physician and epidemiologist who helped establish clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. He helped define the approach as combining research, clinical expertise, and patient preferences.
Clinical practice guideline: A systematically developed recommendation intended to guide decisions about healthcare. Guidelines translate evidence into advice, but they do not replace individualized judgment.
Evidence-based health care: The use of research evidence, clinical expertise, and patient values across healthcare decisions and services. It extends the approach from individual clinical decisions to healthcare systems and services.