Evidence-based medicine, Cochrane reviews and open-access journals.

First, the authors raised an importance of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and mentioned 2 examples: the risky sleeping position for babies and the side effects of antiarrhythmic drugs. They concluded that “doctors’ clinical judgment is not infallible and clinical practice needs to be informed by good research evidence.” In 1996, Sackett et al 2 originally defined EBM as the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of “current best evidence” in making “decisions” about the care of “individual patients.” Hence, apart from the research evidence, the other 3 components of EBM are also important to medical decision for individual patients: (1) clinical/patient circumstances, (2) patient values and preferences, and (3) experience and judgement (Fig. 1). It is a common misconception that sound clinical decision is dictated mainly by scientific evidence, especially high-level evidence such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews and meta-analyses .