Tom is a 55 year old man who was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Tom has high blood pressure. Other than that, Tom has no other problems. Tom's physician (who doesn't practice evidence-based medicine) chooses to prescribe him atenolol for his high blood pressure rather than lisinopril. Unfortunately for Tom, lisinopril would have been a better choice for his blood pressure. Lisinopril (and other drugs in its class called ACE inhibitors) have been shown to decrease death from heart attack and stroke by as much as 25% in patients with diabetes.  Does this mean that Tom will suffer a heart attack or stroke? Does this mean that he will pass away sooner than he would have, had his physician practiced evidence-based medicine? Not necessarily, however, statistically speaking, the likelihood of these events happening is much greater.

Now this is an extreme example, however, it was necessary to demonstrate the concept of evidence-based medicine. As you can see it is important that your doctor use evidence-based medicine when making decisions about your health care. Evidence-based medicine means utilizing official guidelines put forth by reputable organizations to make sound medical decisions. It does NOT mean prescribing medications because the drug company representative dropped off some free samples at the office.

You see, there are reputable organizations that have put forth treatment guidelines for many of the conditions out there today. These guidelines tell us which medications have been shown to be the most effective, least expensive and have the least amount of bad side effects. These guidelines are published in medical journals. Examples of these guidelines include the ATP III guidelines for high cholesterol and the JNC   VII guidelines for high blood pressure. The problem is, to have access to these guidelines, you would need to subscribe to one of these journals and be able to read medical jargon.

At Empowered Medicine, all of the information on our site is based on evidence-based medicine and is presented in plain, simple terms we can all understand. The guidelines mentioned above are considered to be the ‘standard of practice’ for physicians. Physicians who use evidence-based medicine reference these guidelines.  

The concept of evidence-based medicine is easy. It means that the best way to provide quality medical care is to base decisions on the best available scientific evidence. When a physician practices evidence-based medicine, the patient can rest assured that they are receiving current, high quality health care based on sound scientific evidence. When a physician does not use evidence-based medicine, the patient's health may be jeopardized.  

Today's health care consumers need to empower themselves with information so that they can work with their physician to decide which evidence-based therapies are right for them. Unfortunately for the consumer, much of the health information available on the internet today is not based on evidence-based medicine and may not even be written by a health care professional. Much of it is also conflicting.

At Empowered Medicine, we are committed to providing healthcare consumers with the latest, evidence-based healthcare information. Empowered Medicine focuses on providing information on the many chronic conditions we all suffer from as we age.  We have a variety of information and resources available to you on our site. We hope that you will take advantage of the information we have put together for you.