MELBOURNE—Has evidence-based health care fulfilled its early promise? The question was posed at a meeting here at Monash University Medical School last month, and the answer appears to be, not yet.
Australia has taken the evidence-based medicine movement to heart with strong involvement in the Cochrane Collaboration and enthusiasm from the Federal Minister for Health. The conference was an attempt to take stock and discuss priorities for the next stage in the development of evidence-based medicine.
(The Cochrane Collaboration is an international network of clinicians and clinical epidemiologists devoted to bringing together and systematically reviewing the best available evidence on medical care and its delivery.)
The main message from local and international speakers was that a wide gap still exists between having the evidence and applying it effectively in the clinical setting. Some said it would be helpful if people started to talk about evidence-guided health . . . [Full Text of this Article]
