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Evidence-Based Practice
Best research evidence refers to clinically relevant research, often from the basic health and medical sciences, but especially from patient-centered clinical research into the accuracy and precision of diagnostic tests (including the clinical examination); the power of prognostic markers; and the efficacy and safety of therapeutic, rehabilitative, and preventive regimens. Clinical expertise means the ability to use clinical skills and past experience to rapidly identify each patient's unique health state and diagnosis, individual risks and benefits of potential interventions, and personal values and expectations. Patient values refers to the unique preferences, concerns, and expectations that each patient brings to a clinical encounter and that must be integrated into clinical decisions if they are to serve the patient. What is evidence-based practice? In a nutshell, evidence-based practice is the careful balance and integration of three key components-----the best available research evidence, clinical expertise, and patient value references. All three of these key components must be present in order for evidence-based practice to be effective. Learn More Surgeons use evidence to make decisions with patients about clinical care. For most clinical questions, however, the amount of available information is overwhelming and the conclusions often contradictory.Levels of evidence, based on the rigor of study design, are a way to sort through and rate the quality of the surgical literature. This section reviews the use of levels of evidence in orthopaedic literature, inlcuding definitions, practical applications, and available resources. Learn More It is difficult to over-emphasize the importance of practice guidelines in contemporary clinical orthopaedics. In the broadest sense, practice guidelines are fundamental to the clinical quality improvement cycle that drives ever-improving patient care. This section is intended to help members understand the purpose of clinical practice guidelines and the role they play in improving quality of care. Included are current AAOS guidelines and links to available resources on this subject. Learn More Although there continue to be challenges to the design and conduct of rigorous patient-oriented outcomes research, improvements in the methodology and infrastructure promise to improve our ability to perform clinical research and to better understand how we can best serve our patients. This section is intended to provide an overview of available tools and metrics in outcome measurement. Links to available resources are included. Learn More Disparities between what is known to be "best practice" and what is actually practiced underscores the urgent need to improve clinical performance and the quality of care and reduce medical errors. This section provides an overview of the role performance measures plays in improving the quality of care. Learn More |
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Evidence-based practice is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values