They pay obeisance to Sackett and his colleagues of the EBM group by citing many of their original articles. The treatise by the Sackett quintet may lay genuine claim to a measure of seminality for the term and concept. It does more, however, by its emphasis on teaching the concept and by its clarity of writing. I wish the authors had not been so cautious and tentative in their economic analyses section. The term EBM has finally entered Medical Subject Headings vocabulary, although its principles are not new to scientists.
Evidence is necessary for bedside action and policy design.
Traditional opposition fears procrustean reduction of patient and situational individuality to fit population-based evidence. This point of view is unfortunate, because EBM stresses learning driven by clinical situations, and it does allow latitude for patient and clinician preferences. Instead of tilting at EBM, an analysis of national will and political priorities might explain the success or entropy of scientific medicine. This is an expanded edition of an original and a genuine trendsetter. It teaches the principles of the evaluative side of clinical medicine, an important discipline recognized in the last decade.