ABSTRACT
Within the health care disciplines, the topic and idea of evidence-based practice has become a major point of discussion and contention. This debate has arisen, in part, because patients want to be reassured that the procedures and treatments which clinicians recommend and perform are both research-based and likely to produce their intended outcomes. Simultaneously, clinicians want to know that the information they relay is accurate and that the practices they undertake consistently produce their planned effects. Lastly, health care funders (whether tax payers in public systems or insurance companies in private systems) want to ensure that their monetary investments will yield tangible outcomes; is money being spent on efficacious and effective procedures and interventions? From the perspective of these three stakeholders (patients, practitioners and payers), evidence-based practice is surely beneficial. It is a much-needed response to the traditional approach that has and continues to pervade many areas of health care: that is, evidence-based practice contrasts with the strategy of basing health care service delivery solely on anecdotal evidence or on the ‘it has always been done like this’ mentality.
