Evidence-based medicine and health technology assessments

Evidence based medicine (EBM) is the transparent and rational use of the best evidence available to make decisions about patient care. Today, health care has become more complicated and expensive, patient demands have increased and EBM is needed to obtain optimal results, to reduce the differences across clinical practices, to provide high quality services and to promote an efficient and cost-effective health care culture. Evidence based medicine practices concern the health policy makers as well as clinicians. As evidence based medicine gained importance in the field of health policy making the concept of “Evidence Based Health Policy” has emerged. This intent of this concept is for health politicians to moderate the purposes, methods and contents of health care offered to the public, to make decisions between alternatives considering up-to-date information and considering the setting, and to identify and announce political goals that benefit the public. Today it serves as an important means of identifying evidence based health policies and assessing health technologies. In this review, the definition, components, and grounds for evidence based medicine will be discussed, and health technology assessment which is one of the most important instruments of evidence based health policies will be examined