ABSTRACT
Decision analysis (DA) and evidence-based medicine (EBM) arrived on the medical scene at approximately the same time, in the 1980s. Clinical Decision Analysis (Weinstein et al. 1980) quickly became the standard text in that field for 20 years. The EBM series in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (later CMAJ) began in 1983 (Sackett 1983). It was shortly followed by a textbook (Sackett et al. 1985) and then in the 1990s by a series of articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association, first “The rational clinical examination” and then “The user’s guide to the medical literature,” which continues to be published at irregular intervals. A series of papers on innovations in clinical decision analysis beginning with Klein and Pauker (1981) and a “how to” series by Detsky et al. (1997) were published over roughly the same time.
