The importance of randomized clinical trials and evidence-based medicine: a clinician's perspective.
Clinical evaluation of therapies for patient care has evolved during the twentieth century from a variety of scientific methods. As a result of medical, political, and economic changes that occurred in the 1990s, randomized clinical trials and evidence-based methods are presently in the forefront of the physician's thinking in the decision-making process for therapeutic interventions. A new standard of patient care has emerged during this process. This report provides clinician's viewpoint of the importance and interpretation of evidence-based methods and suggests a strategy when such evidence does not exist.
Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.
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Kennedy
D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic