Evidence-based decision-making: the case for diabetes care

Abstract

Clinical decisions in diabetes care are complex, because they cover a wide range of unrelated issues which are affected by varied contexts of healthcare providers from multiple disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the extent to which evidence is used to underpin clinical decisions within the area of diabetes care. In order to do this, it is necessary to capture information on the application of principles of evidence-based practice in diabetes care. Publications debating the nature of evidence-based practice and diabetes care were identified through searching the MEDLINE and CINAHL databases and located through the search engine Google. Additional publications were identified from references cited in relevant papers. These publications viewed evidence-based decisions as a balanced integration of different aspects of the clinical situation such as patient preference and clinician experience, in addition to the best available evidence. Simultaneously, each aspect of clinical care needs different forms of evidence. This is the argument for evidence-based diabetes care, where heterogeneous variables interact in different milieus. In conclusion, evidence-based diabetes care is a loose structure and set of ideas which needs to be adjusted according to each specific clinical situation.