Current trends to consider with evidence-based medicine's importance: societal, financial, legal, and clinical research.

Abstract

Evidence-based medicine and its quality work products enter current clinical practice at a time when physicians face a confusing, contradictory, and changing practice environment. Disparate expectations by patients and policy makers; physician conflicts of interest, and an assumption that doctors control the cost of healthcare, contribute to fears that evidence based medicine in general and guidelines and performance measures in particular, will be misused. An integrated framework for developing evidence based tools is presented.