Evidence-based practice in communication disorders: progress not perfection.
OBJECTIVE
This commentary is written in response to a companion paper by Nan Bernstein Ratner (Evidence-Based Practice: An Examination of its Ramifications for the Practice of Speech-Language Pathology).


METHODS
The comments reflect my experience as Vice President for Research and Technology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). One of the responsibilities of the Vice President is to monitor the work of the Advisory Committee on Evidence-Based Practice.


CONCLUSIONS
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a challenging but attainable goal for audiology and speech-language pathology. Our professions have made rapid progress in developing the foundations for EBP. To be sure, a great deal of work remains to be done, but we have learned from the experiences of other professions and have built our own systems to support EBP.
Kent
Ray D
RD
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA. Kent@waisman.wisc.edu
D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards