Motto: „Half of what I learned you there will be not true over five years. Unfortunately we do not know which half”.
a teacher
In Romania, a GP has about 5,000 consultations a year. At each of these physicians should respond to various questions concerning diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, clinical decisions, totalising about 25,000 per year.
In making clinical decisions, we are confronted daily with situations of uncertainty, often caused by factors related to the individuality of each patient. Reference to hospital could be an effective way to reduce uncertainty, especially when it is a serious problem or train, however, our need for clinical information is far greater than satisfied in this way. In a study on this issue, clinicians have identified a need for additional information on every third patient consulted.
Solutions to remove uncertainties:
– Delay the problem (but we will soon rejoin her)
– Visit the library (treaties are designed to answer specific questions, or are obsolete)
– Questioning of a colleague (confidence in the response may vary)
– Cutting out magazine articles (may remain unread)
– Participation in an expert presentation (advantage: you complete the required training course, disadvantages: difficult to maintain you awake)
– Evidence-based medicine (EBM), learning how to find and evaluate evidence relevant to your problem and then how to apply them in practice.
Evidence-based medicine, within philosophical thinking from the nineteenth century, is conscious and judicious use of current best evidence in making its decision on the treatment provided to a patient by integrating personal experience with the best clinical evidence to that time, resulting in systematic research, i.e. the result of a relevant study, characterized by accuracy and precision of diagnostic tests, prognostic indicators reliability, efficiency and safety of treatment, recovery and treatment, this result invalidating diagnostic tests and treatments supported by then, replacing them with new ones, more powerful, more accurate, more efficient and safer.
A good doctor uses both personal experience and the best external evidence existing at that time, no one being enough used on it’s own.
EBM practice lasts a lifetime.
What is not EBM?
It is not outdated, it is not impossible to be practiced, it is not a „cookbook” because it integrates personal experience and does not provide recipes available for all patients, it is not (or should not be) a mean of reducing health costs by administrators to identify and implement the most effective medical means can increase and decrease expenses, not limited to randomized trials or meta-analysis, consisting of searching the best evidence to answer questions, does not replace skills, knowledge and individual clinical experience.
Why should we bother?
In a trial, a group of doctors were asked to make a list of topics wished for continuing medical education (CME) in order of preference and a list of topics for which they did not want. Half of doctors have followed a form of continuing medical education, half not, then the two groups were compared. The most important and clinically significant improvement in quality of care was observed in cases where doctors had not requested CME. This result suggests that CME works actually when a doctor does not want. The fact that improving quality of care was lower in situations where CME was required as a priority, suggests that where doctors are not asking for it actually they do not need it. In neutral situations where no preference was expresed, quality of care declined, suggesting that CME would not improve overall quality, as is believed.
New evidence appear always, obviously, although we need evidence daily, usually we do not find them immediately; our clinical performance deteriorates with time. Although we always prepare by continuing medical education, this is not sufficient for clinical performance. EBM practice, essentially different from classical education seems to keep up to date practical knowledge in a more easily accepted way.