Critically Appraising Research Evidence Based Medicine and
Critical Appraisal Topics Evidence Based Medicine The Centre for
Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) www.cebm.net defines Evidence-
Based Medicine (EBM) as the conscientious, explicit and
judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about
the care of individual patients. Healthcare providers should use
both individual clinical expertise and the best available
external evidence collectively. Without clinical expertise,
practices risk becoming inundated by evidence. Even excellent
external evidence may be inappropriate for an individual
patient. Without current best evidence, practices risk becoming
rapidly out of date. There is no restriction to randomized
trials and meta-analyses in best EBM. The process involves
tracking down the best external evidence to answer our clinical
questions. Critical Appraisal Topics The CEBM (CEBM, 2009)
defines Critical Appraisal Topic (CAT) as a short summary of an
article from the literature, created to answer