ABSTRACT
A fundamental assumption in healthcare is that evidence, information and knowledge (EI&K) are essential to providing safe patient care. To understand this assumption it is necessary, however, to look beyond the development and promulgation of guidelines and sharing of patient data. Instead, the ways that people and organizations can fully implement what they know to be effective need to be examined. That is, identifying scientific evidence is but an initial step in the creation of a culture based on evidence; the next step is developing practice guidelines that are then disseminated.
