This is a very impressive and timely book on Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) by 74 contributors in the field of pediatrics and child health from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Holland and Italy.
The term EBM was developed by Sackett and colleagues from the McMaster University (Sackett DL et al. Evidence based medicine. BMJ 1996;312:71-2) as "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients" or in other words, good medical practice based on as much facts as possible for the benefit of your patient. Since 1991 this field has been incooporated into many medical schools around the work, textbooks published and now we see it reaching pediatrics and child health.
This superbly edited book (updates will be regularly posted on www.evidbasedpediatrics.com) is devided into three sections: "Finding, evaluating and applying the evidence"; "Evidence for routine practices: screening/prevention" and finally "Common pediatrics conditions" with a good and comprehensive index.
The steps in the practice of Evidence Based Pediatrics (EBP) are: to evaluate the clinical situation (by history, by examination and laboratory tests), identify information needs and structure clinical questions, search for relevant information from the literature, evaluate the evidence found or identify lack of evidence and finally apply the evidence to your patients.
You will find many useful and structured entries in this book from the issue of the "well child" to the common pediatric problems of otitis media, constipation, short stature or croup.
We believe that this important book should find its way to the desks of the practicing pediatrician, the lecturer in child health and the researcher in pediatrics.
Professor Joav Merrick, MD Medical director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel, email: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il
Mohammed Morad, MD Family physician, Division for Community Health, Ben Gurion University, Box 653, IL-84105 Beer-Sheva, Israel, email: morad-62@barak-online.net