DOES EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE BENEFIT PATIENTS?
Basing medical practice on the best available scientific evidence does have its critics. Some, for instance, assert that this philosophy of practice has major limitations when considering the care of individual patients. Others have argued that ‘science’ and ‘objectivity’ are themselves merely arbitrary ‘social constructs,’ and therefore anecdote, testimony, and clinical (personal) experience should be afforded equal weight to ostensibly more objective scientific lines of evidence. Still other critics of EBM note that the data available under its framework may not apply to many treatments offered to patients in clinical practice or to subgroups of various diseases, nor may it be applicable to various types of prophylactic interventions, diagnostic decisions, or psychosocial factors.[33] Notwithstanding such criticisms or claims regarding the prevalence of evidence-based medical practice, health professionals must address the essential question: ‘Does providing evidence-based care impro
