Implementing Evidence-Based Medicine: Lessons From Public Mental Health Settings

Article Abstract

Evidence-based medicine, the incorporation of the best research evidence with clinicalexpertise and patient values, helps to ensure that patients receive the latestand most effective treatment. Once evidence has shown which treatments are mosteffective, dissemination of this information and implementation of thesetreatments by individual clinicians and clinics becomes the goal. Public healthentities and officials have created various modes of implementingevidence-based medicine, including practice guidelines, treatment algorithms,evidence-based practices, changing the delivery system (or policy change), andguideline congruence review. In this E-View, these modes of implementation arereviewed, and their advantages and limitations are discussed. Examples ofchanging the delivery system and using guideline congruence review to implementevidence-based medicine in mental health settings are detailed.