Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is defined as using the best
available evidence for managing patients in daily healthcare practice.
Although this approach has been applied successfully in
many medical fields, it has not been addressed fully in the radiological
discipline in general and nuclear medicine in particular.
In this review, the concept of EBM has been introduced briefly
and four steps of EBM practice have been explained. Asking
answerable questions and finding the best evidence that constitutes
the first two parts of EBM practice are explained in brief.
The next two steps (appraising the available evidence and applying
the best evidence) are explained in more detail. Since the
bulk of nuclear medicine studies are of a diagnostic nature and
most of the daily practice of a nuclear medicine specialist is involved
in diagnosis, we have focused on the diagnosis studies.
Systematic reviews are also explained to some extent. Appraisals
of other kinds of study, such as interventional or prognosis
studies, are not included in this review