Lessons to be learned from evidence-based medicine: practice and promise of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based education

The author briefly describes 10 lessons derived from the practice thus far of evidence-based medicine (EBM) from which evidence-based education/best evidence medical education (EBE/BEME) may potentially profit. Two criteria derived from the practice of evidence-based medicine are then used to assess how well the author believes we have done to date. The first criterion applies the five steps in the model of practicing EBM at the level of the individual practitioner to the field as a whole. The second criterion uses the eight components of a systematic review as an evaluative schema. Finally, the author describes where he believes EBM, EBE and BEME are headed in the future. Brief examples are provided and suggestions are offered for improving the likelihood of making more informed decisions based on the highest quality evidence available. Several ways in which BEME might benefit from, and contribute to, both the Cochrane Collaboration and the proposed new Campbell Collaboration are suggested.