Evidence-based medicine: a means of improving clinical outcome and cost-benefit ration

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a new way of conceiving clinical practice based on the need to both improve the approach to the patient's care and rationalize the costs. EBM is thus defined as "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients". To realize this project a cultural change is mandatory, involving doctors, health planners, and users, whose empowerment seems pivotal. Reasoning in terms of efficacy or even better of cost-benefit ratio will certainly improve the clinical outcome and the allocation of resources.