Evidence-based Medicine

"Evidence-based medicine is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients." *

The full-time clinical staff that produces the Milliman Care Guidelines^® uses the industry's most rigorous evidence-based methodology, including a hierarchy of evidence grading ranging from randomized controlled trials at the top, through other published sources, and finally including appropriate unpublished data. All content is reviewed annually, and updated as necessary, by our doctors and nurses. Milliman Care Guidelines epidemiologists then examine extensive population databases to validate that published research results are achievable in real-life situations. Milliman Care Guidelines believes the phrase "evidence-based medicine" should be applied only to a rigorous process which includes these elements:

• Strict evidence grading, rather than synthesis and consensus – Milliman Care Guidelines uses a strict methodology of classification and strength of evidence, rather than a process in which suggestions for changes are "synthesized," then determined through an "iterative, consensus-building" approach.
• Current, comprehensive review – More than 12,000 unique references are cited within the current 15th Edition of the Care Guidelines, nearly half of them updated in this edition, after more than 13,000 were reviewed for inclusion.
• Diagnosis- and procedure-specific – Care Guidelines^® references are reviewed for their applicability to specific diagnoses and procedures, rather than general categories, and then integrated within the appropriate diagnosis or procedure.
• Integrated evidence – All references, footnotes, annotated bibliographies, and evidence summaries are woven into guideline workflows through pop-up windows and links, rather than being attached at the end or sold as separate products.

Download Evidence-based Medicine Brochure

* David L Sackett, William M C Rosenberg, J A Muir Gray, R Brian Haynes, W Scott Richardson. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. British Medical Journal 1996; 312:71-72. Reproduced with permission from BMJ Publishing Group.