[Evidence based medicine for the gastroenterologist].

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) integrates the best available external evidence in the care of individual patients with the individual clinical expertise and the patient preferences. This method has been designed for use in daily clinical practice. We describe the rationale for EBM and its principles and application in this article. EBM enables gastroenterologists to update the knowledge required to provide patients with high quality medical care. EBM requires four steps: a) formulating a clinical question arising from a doubt concerning a patient; b) conducting an efficient literature search to answer this question; c) critically appraising this evidence using explicit methods to selected articles to determine the validity of their design and the clinical relevance of their results; and d) applying these results to the patient (taking into account their values and preferences and personal and social circumstances). In this paper, we explain the principles and basic concepts of EBM and their application to gastroenterology and we provide an extensive compilation of internet databases of valid information relevant to gastroenterologists. We also provide a selection of useful tools for self-directed learning of critical appraisal skills. Link updates can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.enlacesmedicos.com/e.htm