Future Avenues of Research Synthesis for Evidence-Based Clinical Decision Making

Abstract

Evidence-based clinical decision making in health care described in this book pertains thus far to dentistry, medicine, and nursing. It is to be expected that these concepts will expand into related health care fields such as clinical psychology, social work, dental hygiene, and that even the roles of the physician assistant and the nursing assistant will be favored by the incorporation of the best available evidence. Further, evidence-based decisions must increasingly incorporate considerations and analyses of cost– and risk–benefit ratio, traditionally the realm of comparative effectiveness research. The common thread among all will certainly remain the reliance of the clinical decision-making process on the best available evidence, which results from the process of research synthesis. Therefore, future avenues in the field will depend largely on future developments in research synthesis.