Introduction

The ever increasing need and demand in improving patient care with limited health resources call for a fair distribution of health resources.

The concepts of evidence-based practice have stimulated wide-ranging interest amongst health professionals. People recognized the importance in the accuracy and speed with which health research evidence is translated into effective programs and practices for the preservation of health, and the health care of people.

This has led to the development and rapid growth of evidence-based medicine (EBM). This is a movement that promotes the explicit, conscientious and judicious consideration and use of the best, most up-to-date research evidence to guide health care decisions. Recent developments in the identification, retrieval, appraisal, distillation, synthesis, integration, dissemination and application of such information, show promising results in overcoming some of the existing problems, and thus improving the quality of health care.

Evidence on the effects of care: for improving policies and decisions in health care and research. (Cochrane Collaboration brochure 1995.)

The essence of General Practice/Family Medicine is to provide comprehensive, continuous, holistic primary care. The age of information technology reinforces medical care to be Evidence Based.

The term is commonly seen in medical literature. Some primary care practitioners, however, have difficulty to get hold of the concept, not to say to get into practice.

To facilitate the integration of Evidence Based Medicine, we work towards a multi-language EBM e-platform for primary care professionals in Hong Kong.