The authors present the definition of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and explain different terms of this definition. Evidence-based medicine implies in practice that when deciding on the care of a certain patient views of the patient,views and experience of the clinician andsources of EBM are used.
In the paper the most important sources of EBM are given and types of evidence on which EBM is based. The authors describe in some detail the Cochrane library which is one of the best known databases oriented on EBM.
On the example of work pertaining to treatment of allergic rhinitis they explain then in a simplified way basic biostatistical methods used in evidence- based medicine.