title: Research that Guides Clinical Decisions.
abstract: The centerpiece of evidence-based medicine is the randomized controlled trial, a rigorous experiment. We use the study by Roozeboom et al. to illustrate how research guides clinical decisions. We describe levels of evidence, review criteria for assessing a trial regarding noninferiority of a therapy, and discuss challenges for evidence-based medicine in guiding care precisely targeted to an individual patient.
authors.affiliation: Program for Clinical Research, Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; Dermatology Service, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA. Electronic address: chrenm@derm.ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Mary-Margaret
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Chren
authors.affiliation: Program for Clinical Research, Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; Dermatology Service, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Arron
mesh_terms: D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans