Accessing Evidence-Based Medicine

There is discussion in blogs at the moment about the limits of Evidence-based medicine and how it may be impacted by web2.0 technologies. Laikas, a Dutch librarian, posted about this recently. Sarah Stewart, a midwife from NZ, replied by describing some of the difficulties faced by the public in accessing EBM and the resulting asymmetry of information between doctors and patients.

This reminded me of a You-Tube video I came across last year.

It is an interview Muir Gray, the NHS Chief Knowledge Officer (a post he first floated in 1998 in the BMJ), describes his view of the future of information in the NHS. Resources will be equally available to patients, (or to use his term, citizens) and to professionals. As a clinician and citizen I think this is an enlightened policy. I find much of the content on the NHS choices website very exciting, including Behind the Headlines. BtH gives an evidence-based critique of health stories in the press. I do not like Map of Medicine..... but more about that later:)

To illustrate some of the different sources of EBM available I am going to look at guidance on the management of stable COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

First of all here is the page from the BMJ's Clinical Evidence site. I find this very unhelpful. If I wanted to know about one particular treatment and the evidence base, or lack of, for it's use in the management of the condition, this would be useful. But it is not at all useful for a brief synopsis of how to manage the condition.

Next, Clinical Knowledge summaries COPD page. This has many different levels of information and takes quite a lot of clicking around. But it is likely to be useful to a clinician in a surgery. And probably to patients/citizens as well.

GP Notebook is in my experience a favourite of UK GPs. Looking at it's info on the management of stable COPD it is clear that the guidance is related to the NICE guideline on the topic because it references the NICE guidance, and describes different steps for mild/moderate and severe levels of disease. This looks the easiest to access and most clinically relevant so far.

Lastly, we have the Map of Medicine stable COPD page. This annoys me on many levels. For one we are told under 'indications for referral' that this should be considered for severe COPD, but you have to go down to 'follow-up care in severe disease' to find out what the criteria for diagnosing severe COPD is.

What do you use to access EBM? Are different sites useful for different purposes? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

EDIT 11/8/10 I've reviewed the Map of Medicine page (previous link had died- new one is current) and it still does not make diagnosis criteria clear, unfortunately. Time to drop them a tweet!