Best Practices
Evidence-based medicine relies on the use of current best evidence combined with individual clinical expertise to make decisions about the care of individual patients or the delivery of health services. Current best evidence is up-to-date clinically relevant research about the effects of different forms of health care, the accuracy and precision of diagnostic tests, the potential for harm from exposure to particular agents, and the power of prognostic factors.
The following links provide the best practice guidelines approved by the federal government:
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: http://www.ahrq.gov/
- National Guideline Clearinghouse: http://www.guidelines.gov/
For practice guidelines in your specialty, please visit your particular specialty society website.
Free Access:
- Bandolier: http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/
- CDC Wonder: http://wonder.cdc.gov/
- Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE): http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/CMS2Web/
- Evidence Based Medicine for Primary Care & Internal Medicine: http://ebm.bmj.com/
- Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI): http://www.icsi.org/
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): http://clinicaltirals.gov/
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF): http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org
Subscription Required:
- Cochrane: http://www.cochrane.org/
- DynaMed: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/
- Essential Evidence Plus: http://www.essentialevidenceplus.com/
- PEPID: http://www.pepid.com/
- Physicians Information and Education Resource (PIER): http://pier.acponline.org/index.html
- UptoDate: http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html
If you are preparing a presentation for a CME-certified conference or educational material, your content should be based on current best evidence that is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for the decisions about the care of individual patients.
For more information on requirements and expectations for CME-certified activities, please visit our CME Expectations page.
