Evidence-Based Medicine

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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An Emerging Trend Vital to Physicians

[Staff Reporters]

According to Associate Professor Gregory O. Ginn, PhD; MBA, CPA, MEd., of the University of Las Vegas, an emerging trend for all medical providers is evidence-based medicine that offers the promise of improving the quality of clinical services. And, some argue that evidence-based medicine is a trend that will prevail for the foreseeable future.

Definition

According to the Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care, EBM involves the judicious use of the best current evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is meant to integrate clinical expertise with the best available research evidence and patient values. EBM was initially proposed by Dr. David Sackett and colleagues at McMasters University in Ontario, Canada.

Expert Driven Standards of Care

In the past, standards of care were often set by panels of experts. Today, however, there is a greater demand for empirical evidence to establish the efficacy of clinical protocols. Evidence-based medicine can directly affect financial performance because it facilitates the elimination of therapies that cannot be demonstrated to be effective.

Example:

For example, evidence-based medicine can reduce a hospital’s prescription drug costs. Evidence-based medicine may also affect operations management if it shows that multiple approaches to treatment can be efficacious. Of course, in order to accommodate different modalities of treatment, hospitals will need more sophisticated information systems that allow for data integration.

Assessment

Evidence-based medicine may also be used to support another trend, the development of alternative and complementary medicine.

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3 Responses

  1. Graham, on May 17, 2010 at 8:37 PM said:

    Evidence Based Medicine

    The American College of Physicians’ High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care initiative will assess benefits, harms, and costs of diagnostic tests and treatments for various diseases to determine whether they provide good value;

    http://managedhealthcareexecutive.modernmedicine.com/mhe/News+Analysis/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/670349

    The time for EBM is now!

    Graham

    Like

  2. Dr. Raj, on April 30, 2012 at 2:46 PM said:

    Physicians, Money and Decision Making

    Modern medical care decision making can be clouded by all sorts of factors and money is just one of them. But, I am not sure we are always aware of the way money influences our decisions as doctors.

    http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2012/04/money-influences-decisions-doctors.html

    But we should be.

    Dr. Raj

    Like

  3. Edwin, on May 24, 2015 at 3:14 AM said:

    Evidence-based Medicine (EBM)

    Few are opposed to evidence-based medicine. What’s the alternative? Ignorance-based medicine? Hunches?

    However, the real world applicability of evidence-based medicine (EBM) is frequently overstated. Our ideal research model is the randomized controlled trial, where studies are conducted with carefully selected samples of patients to observe the effects of the medicine or treatment without additional interference from other conditions.

    Unfortunately, this model differs from actual medical practice because hospitals and doctors’ waiting rooms are full of elderly patients suffering from several co-morbidities and taking about 12 to 14 medications, (some unknown to us). It is often a great leap to apply findings from a study under “ideal conditions” to the fragile patient.

    So wise physicians balance the “scientific findings” with the several vulnerabilities and other factors of real patients. Clinicians are obliged to constantly deal with these messy tradeoffs, and the utility of evidence-based findings is mitigated by the complex challenges of the sick patients, multiple medications taken, and massive unknowns.

    http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2015/05/22/credibility-of-evidence-a-reconsideration-of-the-logic-and-strength-of-our-healthcare-decisions/

    This mix of research with the messy reality of medical and hospital practice means that evidence, even if available, is often not fully applicable.

    Edwin

    Like

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