title: The tools and techniques of evidence-based medicine.
abstract: Evidence-based medicine is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. Along with individual clinical expertise, it is a required core skill for clinical problem solving and it is considered to be a comprehensive component of the medical curricula. This chapter is a general overview of the steps to be followed by clinicians to search, identify and appraise the best-available evidence that could help them to resolve a particular clinical problem. It includes the principles for the identification of a clinical problem and its translation into a question, and the main sources for searching and locating the best-available evidence. References for guidelines designed for appraisal of the methods used in the original papers and for the interpretation of its results are also provided.
authors.affiliation: Centro Rosarino de Estudios Perinatales, Pueyrredón 985, S2000QIC Rosario, Argentina. edgardoabalos@crep.com.ar
authors.forename: Edgardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abalos
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carroli
authors.forename: María Eugenia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Mackey
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D003657:Decision Making; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval