Abstract
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a term which entered the lexicon of medical practice in 1992. It can be defined as “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients”. In this chapter we illustrate how to practice EBM using a sequence of straight forward steps moving from phrasing a clinical question to making a judgment of the risk of bias in the evidence we encounter. We will then introduce and use the GRADE system of determining the quality of evidence to allow the surgeon a means of determining their confidence in the evidence that they use to guide their clinical practice.
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Recommended Reading
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Srinathan, S.K. (2018). Evidence-Based Medicine and the GRADE Approach. In: Angelos, P., Grogan, R. (eds) Difficult Decisions in Endocrine Surgery. Difficult Decisions in Surgery: An Evidence-Based Approach. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92860-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92860-9_1
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