Evidence Based Medicine

Evidence based medicine tries to address the question... "What is the evidence we have to justify the treatments used in clinical practice?"

Clinical trials and other types of research aim to provide evidence ("proof") whether a particular treatment works, how well it works compared to other treatments, and what are the risks of the treatment. Various organisations collate the results of clinical trials and other research to determine the evidence for various treatments and procedures.

A main source of reviews of evidence based medicine aimed at the general public is:

• BestTreatments - helps you and your doctor use the evidence from medical research to decide together which treatments are best for you.

Sources of reviews of evidence based medicine which are widely used by health professionals include:

• The Cochrane Library
• Clinical Evidence
• Bandolier

These and other resources of evidence based medicine can be viewed freely via the

• National Electronic Library for Health

Also, clinical guidelines are now widely used and base their recomendations on evidence based medicine. See: Guidelines

Other websites dealing with evidence based medicine include the following.

•  Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine  (UK site) - "The Centre has been established in Oxford as the first of several centres around the country whose aim broadly is to promote evidence-based health care and provide support and resources to anyone who wants to make use of them."
•  TRIP database  (UK site) TRIP was created in 1997 to bring together all the 'evidence-based' healthcare resources available on the Internet. It started with 1,100 links recorded from 15 sources and since then it has grown rapidly in both coverage and usability. This expansion has also encompassed the addition of new forms of material including peer-reviewed journals and 'eTextbooks', giving the site a more rounded clinical appeal.
•  Centre for Evidence Based Mental Health  (UK site) - Promoting and supporting the teaching and practice of evidence based mental healthcare. From Oxford University.
•  BAPS Evidence Based Plastic Surgery  (UK site) - British Association of Plastic Surgeons webpage for Evidence Based Plastic Surgery.
•  Effective Health Care  (UK site) - Is a bi-monthly bulletin for decision makers which examines the effectiveness of a variety of health care interventions. Effective Health Care bulletins are based on a systematic review and synthesis of research on the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and acceptability of health service interventions.
•  BMJ - Topic Collections  (UK site)All articles published in the British Medical Journal since January 1998 listed in contents categories. Contains many original papers, research findings, reviews and debate on a wide variety of medical conditions.
•  NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination  (UK site) - Provides details of various reviews of areas of clinical practice and their effectiveness. "The majority of the CRD's dissemination activity involves raising awareness of messages from research and aims to provide important information in an easily accessible form."  You may wish to conduct your own search of the literature on a specific medical condition and its treatment by searching through Medline.

Medical Journals Online

•  Freemedicaljournals Comprehensive set of links to over 1300 online medical journals - free.
•  Medic8 Provide a comprehensive set of links to online medical journals.

Medical Images / Pictures / Atlases

•  Pictures of skin conditions
• • Dermnet The dermatologists image resource (US site). Includes a large collection of photos or skin disorders.
  • DermNet NZ New Zealand site with a large collection of pictures of skin conditions.
  • Dermis.net - A cooperation between the Dept. of Clinical Social Medicine (Univ. of Heidelberg) and the Dept. of Dermatology (Univ. of Erlangen) Germany. Huge collection of photos.
  • Dermatology Atlas - from Loyola University, Chicago, US
  • Catalog of Clinical Images (skin) - University of California, San Diego, US
  • Medical Images Library - Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  • Dermatology Image Atlas - Johns Hopkins University, US
  • Atlas of Dermatology - A comprehensive resource

•  Other / general clinical images
• • Catalog of Clinical Images - University of California, San Diego, US
  • Medical Images Library - Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  • MedPix(tm) - a Medical Image Database from Uniformed Services University, US

•  Anatomy / Body Parts

 If you are looking for more detailed anatomy illustrations then the following are useful sites.

• Atlas of Human Anatomy - From the Virtual Hospital
• Grey's Anatomy - The ultimate and detailed anatomy textbook
• Human Anatomy Online - Less detailed than Grey's anatomy, but more user friendly for non-medical people.

Extract from the web site http://www.patient.co.uk