Extract
"... To fix a health care system distorted by spiraling costs... true
reform needs to go farther. Certainly any farreaching reform must make greater
use of evidence-based medicine..."—"Healing Health Care"The Washington Post, May 15, 2004What is this "evidence-based medicine" that the editorial staff
of The Washington Post feels is a cornerstone of health-care reform,
and what, if anything, does it have to do with the current practice of
orthopaedic surgery? Does the application of evidence-based medicine offer a
way to reduce public expenditure on health care? The short answer is that
evidence-based medicine is a process that uses truthful clinical information
in addition to the practical experience of the surgeon to make medical
decisions1. Also, in
theory, the practice guidelines that are generated by scientific clinical
studies can reduce the complications and bad surgical outcomes that drive
health-care costs
higher2.