The Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence-Based Medicine for Clinical Decision Making

While most practicing pharmacists are familiar with the term and the general concept of evidence-based medicine, few are adequately trained in the clinical application of these skills. Developed to give clinical pharmacists an edge, this book provides a practical approach for applying sound EBM principles to your clinical decision making process.

Decision making based on personal experience alone, without knowledge from well-designed, controlled, randomized trials with adequate sample size, often overestimates the efficacy and underestimates the safety risks associated with drugs. This book provides a roadmap that is instructional and, most importantly, practical for the pharmacist so these new skills can be applied immediately in practice.

Based on a five-step process perfected over ten years at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Pharmacy, this exciting new approach will: Reduce complexity; Shorten time for decision making support; Maintain rigor; Categorize quality of the evidence in a simple, straightforward, and logical manner; Provide a process designed specifically for pharmacists making drug therapy decisions.

Use of examples, tables, diagrams, and key points highlighted throughout the book and summarized at the end of each chapter provide the pharmacist with skills they can implement the next day to begin applying EBM principles to their practice.