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Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) combines individual clinical expertise with the best available clinical evidence from systematic research in making decisions about the care of individual patients. Clinical expertise is the proficiency and judgment that individual clinicians acquire through clinical experience and practice. Clinical evidence comes from patient centered clinical research which investigates the accuracy and precision of diagnostic tests, the efficacy and safety of therapeutic regimes, and the reliability of prognostic indicators. The powerful combination of clinical expertise and documented evidence results in safer, more efficacious and accurate care of the patient.

According to David L. Sackett, author of Evidence-based Medicine: How to Practice and Teach EBM, the practice of EBM is a process of life-long, self-directed learning in which caring for the patient creates the need for clinically important information about diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and other clinical and health care issues.

EBM is a process that involves the following steps:

1. Construct a pertinent answerable question from a clinical case
2. Plan and carry out a search of the clinical literature (MEDLINE, ACP Journal, Cochrane Database, etc.) that filters out irrelevant information
3. Critically appraise the literature for validity and usefulness
4. Apply the results of this appraisal to your clinical practice
5. Evaluate your performance