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The Importance Of Evidence-Based Care

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As we continue to focus on value-based care, where quality and costs are so important, there has been a growing emphasis on practicing evidenced-based medicine. We are now beginning to collect data and evidence not only on clinical matters, but also on issues such as whether patient-centered medical homes really work or if technology really lowers costs. As we accumulate more information on what works and what does not, we will need to increase our vigilance to using the information. Historically in healthcare, we have not really used evidence-based practices even when we say we do. There are many reasons why this avoidance of using such practices occurs. Study design is one. Many times a study is done from a very scientific standpoint, but …show more content…

As a Hypertension specialist, this year is the 20th anniversary of a landmark trial showing the benefits of a certain type of diet. The usage of this diet has been abysmal and of course the blame has fallen on the clinicians for not promoting the diet. That could not be further from the truth. The bigger issue is that we have not studied how to implement the results from the individual’s perspective. We need to coordinate evidenced-based outcomes data with evidenced-based tools that have been shown to change behavior. Whether gaming models, easy to use apps, or motivational interviewing, tying the mode of engagement and activation to the evidence-based data will become more and more important. Another major issue is that we as clinicians are given mixed messages. A prime example concerns statin therapy for primary prevention. Two different highly respected guideline bodies have taken the same evidence and created different recommendations. We also see guidelines from societies that only focus on a specific population. These differences create confusion both for the clinician and the patient. Usually when these differences occur, we default to a place in our heads that basically say if the experts do not agree, I might as well do what I think is best, with or without

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