An introduction to evidence‐based health care and the opportunities it presents for information professionals – clinical evidence as an example
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720310510882 |
| Pages | 179-183 |
| Published date | 01 December 2003 |
| Date | 01 December 2003 |
| Author | Olwen Beaven,Jane McHugh |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
An introduction to
evidence-based health
care and the
opportunities it presents
for information
professionals ± clinical
evidence as an example
Olwen Beaven and
Jane McHugh
Introduction
EBH is a simple concept. It involves healthcare
professionals considering good quality research
evidence, when taking decisions about which
treatments to use in their practice. Research
evidence will not necessarily dictate which
treatment is recommended, but is a valuable
decision aid, especially when difficult choices
have to be made. Though it is a straightforward
idea, there are a number of factors that have
made it a rather difficult concept to put into
practice, however.
Medical and healthcare research literature is
characterised by its ever expanding volume and
the rapid development of new scientific fields.
The number of scientific breakthroughs,
research developments, new products, etc. all
mean the amount of information available on
any medical speciality is overwhelming. It has
long been recognised that it is impossible for
individual clinicians to keep up to date with all
this material. It is also recognised that the mass
of information can easily lead to many useful
research studies and valuable results being
hidden and neglected by the medical profession
as a whole. Consequently, instead of being able
to actively use and incorporate high quality
research information into clinical decision
making, there is still a reliance upon opinion
and tradition, delaying potentially life saving
advances from being used.
Making evidence-based healthcare
possible
The potential for important data to be missed
and healthcare to suffer as a result, led a British
doctor, Archie Cochrane (1979), to highlight
the problem and suggest that there should be a
systematic analysis and summary of all the good
quality research for every clinical specialty,
which would also be regularly updated.
Healthcare professionals could then consult
these summaries to see what research was
telling them about different treatments.
Cochrane's ideas and the ensuing debate they
raised, inspired the establishment of the
Cochrane Collaboration and a wave of other
EBH initiatives in the UK and abroad. All these
The authors
Olwen Beaven and Jane McHugh are Information
Specialists, BMJ Knowledge, BMJ Publishing Group,
London, UK.
E-mail: obeaven@bmjgroup.com; jmchugh@bmjgroup.com
Keywords
Evidence-based practice, Health services,
Information personnel
Abstract
This article gives a brief introduction to evidence-based
healthcare (EBH) and the role that library and information
professionals play in supporting it. It then presents a case
study of the work that information specialists undertake for
the EBH publication,
Clinical Evidence
(produced by the BMJ
Publishing Group).
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0305-5728.htm
179
VINE: The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems
Volume 33 .Number 4 .2003 .pp. 179-183
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720310510882
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