EBM is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research."
The EBM Cycle begins when a question arises in the course of caring for a patient.
The 5 A's of EBM are a good system for remembering the steps needed to practice evidence-based medicine:
| 1. ASK the question | Construct a relevant, answerable question |
| 2. ACQUIRE the resources/evidence | Select the appropriate resources and conduct a search to find the best available evidence to answer the question. |
| 3. APPRAISE the evidence | Appraise for validity (closeness to the truth), risk of bias, and applicability (usefulness in clinical practice) |
| 4. APPLY | Return to the patient. Integrate the evidence with clinical expertise, patient preferences and apply it to practice and assess your performance. |
| 5. Analyze | Reflect on the course of action take, and seek ways to improve |
Here at Belmont, we may use the term evidence-based practice in addition to evidence-based medicine. EBP differs slightly from EBM, in that EBP is an umbrella term of sorts. EBP encompasses evidence-based medicine, evidence-based nursing, evidence-based physical therapy, evidence-based dentistry, etc.
