New Publication from Arrowhead Publishers Assesses Role of Evidence-Based Medicine in Clinical Healthcare and Reimbursement Decisions

According to Arrowhead Publishers' new publication entitled Evidence Based Medicine: Current Use and Future Impact on Global Clinical and Reimbursement Practices, experts agree that evidence-based medicine will become a gold standard in clinical practice and decisions regarding the use of public healthcare funds, given its huge potential for matching needs with resources.

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) November 26, 2008 -- According to Arrowhead Publishers' new publication entitled Evidence Based Medicine: Current Use and Future Impact on Global Clinical and Reimbursement Practices (http://www.arrowheadpublishers.com/reports/miscellaneous/evidencebased-medicine/), experts agree that evidence-based medicine will become a gold standard in clinical practice and decisions regarding the use of public healthcare funds, given its huge potential for matching needs with resources.

Evidence-based medicine can be defined as a collection of means aiming to best use standards from scientifically-collected evidence to improve medical practices by assessing risks and benefits of treatments and/or the lack of treatments, while also incorporating patients' wishes and desires. The creation of best possible models of care is a must, given that 'estimates of the amount of unnecessary, duplicative, and inefficient care run as high as one-third of total annual health care spending in the US. For example, since 1981, the US has spent around US$30 billion on AIDS research, with evidence used for the improvement of prevention and treatment of the condition. The estimated cost of AIDS would have otherwise run into US$1.4 trillion by today, with over half of all hospital beds in the country occupied by AIDS patients. Clearly, the financial - not just clinical - implications of evidence-based medicine are staggering.

Evidence Based Medicine: Current Use and Future Impact on Global Clinical and Reimbursement Practices (http://www.arrowheadpublishers.com/reports/miscellaneous/evidencebased-medicine/) sets out to provide a bird's-eye view of the recently evolved concept of evidence-based medicine. The discipline that has old origins has only recently been embraced by medical practitioners, policy-makers and the general public in some countries, notably the United Kingdom (UK). Globally, however, it remains an unproven variable, although a number of current trends - such as the rising need for healthcare and pharmaceutical cost containment - will serve to drive a higher acceptance of EBM.

Various sociodemographic changes, including the aging population, the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles and rising patients' expectations from the medical profession, have resulted in increased pressure on available financial resources. Consequently, policy-makers and purse holders are nowadays much more interested than before in value for money, especially in those European countries that run a socialist-type healthcare system.

Theoretically speaking, evidence-based medicine is a strong candidate for use in the reimbursement process. Evidence-based medicine can determine the level of clinical effectiveness that can - in turn - be used as a benchmark for reimbursement levels. Similarly, evidence-based medicine could be used to determine the extent of reimbursement, testing different treatments for the same disease. This assessment can be further divided into specific patient populations, which can provide an even better fit between the condition and the treatment. However, individual differences clearly represent a major obstacle to using evidence-based medicine as a generalized tool.

Highlights of this report:

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