Tag Archives: evidence-based medicine

This evening, PBS will air a special investigative report on the dangers of our current medical system. Money & Medicine takes us inside two world-renowned hospitals -- UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and Intermountain Medical Center in Utah -- and shares first-hand stories of unnecessary medical spending, as well as effective methods for improving the overall quality of care and reducing costs. Money & Medicine captures the variations of care from birth to death and paints a powerful picture of our country’s medical crisis. The film also depicts effective strategies currently practiced at UCLA and Intermountain that reduce wasteful medical spending and improve health care quality. These strategies include improving coordination of care, implementing shared decision making and practicing evidence-based medicine. Continue reading →

Policies to promote shared decision making are becoming prominent in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. This is partly because of a recognition of the ethical imperative to properly involve patients in decisions about their care and partly because of the acrruing evidence that the approach has benefits. Shared decision making is an approach where clinicians and patients make decisions together using the best available evidence. Continue reading →