Evidence-based medicine for orthopedic practice.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is regarded as a new paradigm in medical practice, equal in enormity to the human genome project. However, there is still much confusion and misunderstanding about the concept and content of EBM. It is often limited to searching the literature and reading papers, serving cost cutters, and suppressing clinical freedom. Some believe that the use of clinical guidelines or the managed care system intimidates doctors' discretion during clinical practice and that EBM is a fashionable tendency of a group of medical academics armed with epidemiological and statistical jargon. Medical practice is a lifelong, continuous process of self-learning, and it requires clinicians to keep up to date on various developments. EBM is our practice for integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available evidence when making decisions about our care for each patient. EBM is one answer for making it possible to cover most of our activities as orthopedic surgeons, from the daily practice of patient care to writing and reading scientific papers.