Evidence-based medicine for better healthcare

Clinicians in developing countries frequently come across a situation where existing guidelines are not enough for decision making. Very often, patients’ values and circumstances restrict clinicians from following guidelines word to word in all cases and they have to select one most economical, appropriate and effective treatment or diagnostic test in minimal time from data available from different populations. Evidence based medicine is claimed to have an answer to these problems. Although accepted by many, questions continue to be raised about its time consuming process, feasibility and generalisability. Developments like modes of practising EBM, development of CATs and Best Practices have made access to already appraised evidence possible, providing answer for time constraints. Tools of EBM like NNT, likelihood ratio have made it generalisable and applicable to individual patient. This article is written to see the advantages of EBM which have made it more meaningful for developing countries with limited resources for research