Occupational Therapy: Evidence-Based Practice: EBP

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is the framework for your clinical decision-making process. It is the integration of

• your knowledge, skills, and past experience (Clinical Expertise);
• the unique preferences, concerns and expectations of your patient (Patient Characteristics); and
• valid and clinically relevant research (Best Evidence).

David Sackett defined evidence-based medicine as "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients."  Read this article from BMJ entitled Evidence-Based Medicine:  what it is and what it isn't to learn more.

Definition from the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine

• Review the Situation (Assess)
• Define the clinical problem as a question (Ask)
• Select resources, design a strategy, & search for the answer (Acquire)
• Summarize the evidence yield (Appraise)
• Apply the evidence (Apply)

MORE EBM/EBP INFO:

• Interactive Tutorial of EBM Process (Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives)
• EBP Guide (Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives) - extensive guide; note that some items are restricted to Duke affiliates
• Hierarchy of Evidence