Finding the best scientific evidence to support clinical practice

The role of science in clinical practice is nowadays fundamental. The constant publication of studies and clinical trials provides evidence of good quality that can be used by the clinician as a basis for medical decision-making, even in a context of uncertainty and risk. Valid and relevant information can help solve the problems of clinical knowledge in practice. The main question is then how practicing clinicians can learn about the innovations and acquire the recent information that can help them to change their practice for the better. The volume of medical literature is enormous and constantly growing, and it is difficult to manage. The increasing availability of secondary data sources for daily patient care provides practical and rapid access to all this information, enabling improvements in the quality of care. In this paper we present and discuss a set of modern and high-quality instruments to obtain useful information for clinical practice.