Does EBM offer the best opportunity yet for teaching medical statistics?

Trends in the teaching of statistics to medical undergraduates since the 1970s are traced. I conclude that the aim of enabling doctors to evaluate statistical information relevant to their practice preceded the arrival of evidence-based medicine (EBM). However this aim was not well realized before 1990. EBM has given an enormous opportunity for statisticians to teach critical appraisal and to orientate future doctors towards evidence-based practice. This advantage should outweigh any disadvantage of loss of our discipline's identity in modern curricula. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.