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The rapid expansion of biomedical knowledge has made the challenge to acquire and evaluate new information quite formidable. Evidence-based medicine (EBM), a clinical problem-solving approach designed to help clinicians meet the challenge of incorporating the best available external evidence in caring for patients, consists of the following 5 steps: (1) defining the clinical problem presented by the patient and formulating an answerable question, (2) searching for the best reported evidence, (3) critically appraising the validity and clinical importance of this evidence, (4) applying it to clinical practice, and (5) evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency in executing steps 1~4 and seeking ways to improve both the next time. This paper describes the definition of EBM, background of its development, and the five steps that are involved.
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