"Evidence-based healthcare is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients or the delivery of health services. Current best evidence is up-to-date information from relevant, valid research about the effects of different forms of health care, the potential for harm from exposure to particular agents, the accuracy of diagnostic tests, and the predictive power of prognostic factors." (First Annual Nordic Workshop on how to critically appraise and use evidence in decisions about healthcare, National Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, 1996).

Evidence-Based Medicine: What it is and what it isn't (By David L Sackett, William MC Rosenberg, JA Muir Gray, R Brian Haynes, W Scott Richardson. An article is based on an editorial from the British Medical Journal, 13th January 1996 (BMJ 1996; 312: 71-2)