Evidence-based cardiac practice.
Increasing attention is being placed on using an evidence-based approach within health care decision making. In order to apply this approach to a particular clinical scenario, the relevant clinical evidence must be available, accessible, accepted, applied, and audited. Cardiovascular medicine is a discipline in which a large body of evidence is available. The development of the Cochrane Library, as a source of systematic reviews concerning the effects of health care, will make this evidence more accessible. However, caution is required in interpreting systematic reviews, particularly when meta-analytic techniques are used, to ensure that potential sources of bias in the identification and synthesis of the primary studies are minimised. A further challenge is to develop strategies to ensure the evidence is accepted and applied in clinical practice. Although there are no magic bullets to change behaviour of positions, there are a number of strategies which have been shown to influence change positively in clinical practice.
Silagy
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Australasian Cochrane Centre, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, SA.
D001315:Australia; D002309:Cardiology / Q000379:methods*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D003657:Decision Making; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit