RT Journal
A1 Lerma EV
T1 EVidence-based nephrology
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2010
FD May 5
VO 303
IS 17
SP 1756
OP 1760
DO 10.1001/jama.2010.560
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.560
AB 
Initially proposed more than 15 years ago by Gordon Guyatt and his team at McMaster University in Canada, evidence-based medicine is defined as the use of the best current scientific evidence in making decisions about medical care. It is meant to integrate clinical expertise with the best available research evidence and patient values. Using this definition, systemic reviews and meta-analytical studies are considered the best approaches currently available for summarizing the available evidence concerning various aspects of health care, eg, cost-effectiveness of current practices, efficacy of therapies, and long-term outcomes and prognoses. It becomes truly daunting for clinical practitioners to keep up to date with the vast amount of medical literature published daily in peer-reviewed journals. Several factors contribute to this limitation, namely, the amount or volume of published research articles and the lack of protected time to dedicate to this endeavor but also the various languages in which articles are published.