Teaching evidence-based medicine to medical students.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the rubric for an approach to learning and practicing medicine that applies skills from clinical epidemiology, library science, and information management to clinical practice. Teaching EBM effectively requires a longitudinal approach throughout medical education. This presents many opportunities for academic emergency physicians, especially in the setting of an emergency medicine clerkship. EBM is best taught at the bedside, although this depends on a skilled and interested faculty. Bedside teaching of EBM also requires ready access to modern information resources. Other venues for teaching EBM include morning report, teaching conferences, and journal clubs. Many tools can be used to aid the process, including Web-based sources such as UpToDate, textbooks, and Web-based tutorials, educational prescriptions, and critically appraised topics.