Evidence-based healthcare is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients or the delivery of health services. But, until recently, much medical practice was based on intelligent guess work, clever hunches, and individual clinical skills. It depended on unsystematic clinical observations to build up knowledge of a patient progress and prognosis. It also assumed that a traditional knowledge of physiology and pathology and common sense was sufficient to guide clinical practice and evaluate new treatments and diagnoses. Unusual problems were solved by picking the brains of your colleagues.
Evidence based medicine has several parallels with clinical audit.
Evidence-based practice aims to move beyond anecdotal clinical experience by bridging the gap between research and the practice of medicine. The aim is to use diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions that are as accurate, as safe and as efficacious as possible. It should provide a rigorous examination of the outcomes of different clinical actions. Remember what you learned during your professional training, in my case what was considered optimum treatment 10 years ago and more. New treatments and diagnoses can be evaluated by a combination of traditional medical education and common sense.