By best available external clinical evidence we mean clinically relevant research, often from the basic sciences of medicine, but especially from patient centered clinical research into the accuracy and precision of diagnostic tests (including the clinical examination), the power of prognostic markers, and the efficacy and safety of therapeutic, rehabilitative, and preventive regimens.
External clinical evidence both invalidate previously accepted diagnostic tests and treatments and replaces them with new ones that are more powerful, more accurate, more efficacious, and safer."
Source: Sackett, D.L. et al. (1996) Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ 312 (7023), 13 January, 71-72).
• For more reading on Evidence Based Healthcare and useful references, see BMJ 1996;312:71-72 (13 January) Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't
• Definitions of evidence-based practice - from Sheffield University's Netting the Evidence.