According to Dr. David Sackett, EBM is based on "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of EBM means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available clinical evidence from systematic research." He noted that "good doctors use both individual clinical expertise and the best available external evidence, and neither alone is enough."
Wouldn't it be nice if it were that simple and the use of EBM translated directly into quality utilization review which helped doctors practice better medicine and injured workers benefited from such care? Why are employers/payers and injured workers/providers so frustrated with the current workers' compensation medical care system?
In the current issue of getMedLegal Magazine, I have tried to address these issues and questions from both the payer and provider side. You can read the full article at: http://www.getmedlegal.com/articles/articles0412/feinberg-ebm.html.
