AlphaMED Resources · https://alphamedicine.uk/Resources/glossary/evidence-based
Evidence based medicine
EBM
Evidence based medicine combines the best available research with the clinician's expertise and the patient's values to reach a decision.
Summary
- Gordon Guyatt of McMaster University in Canada coined the term in the early 1990s. David Sackett was among its best known early advocates.
- Evidence is ranked by reliability. Systematic reviews of randomised trials sit at the top and expert opinion at the bottom.
- NICE reviews the evidence and turns it into national guidelines.
- It guards against treatments that are used from habit and do not work.
Interview questions
- What is evidence based medicine?
- A patient asks for a treatment they read about online that has no good evidence behind it. What do you say?
- Should a doctor ever go against a guideline?
Practise answering these with a mentor
Our interview preparation has you answer questions like these out loud, with feedback on each answer.
alphamedicine.uk/Services · alphamedicine.uk/Contact
More NHS hot topics, medical ethics case studies and medical school interview questions are in AlphaMED Resources, which we add to and update through the application cycle.