Our own kind of evidence

Abstract

Prior to writing this paper I had only heard vaguely about Evidence-Based Practice and Evidence-Based Medicine. I had assumed that it referred to a clinical practice where ones work was based on research findings, an approach which could surely be described as a good thing. Other arts therapists seemed to have the same kind of vague understanding and so I was rather surprised to get a very vehement response from a friend who is a doctor; he said that EBM was patronising: its what all good doctors do anyway!. Whatever else EBP or EBM might or might not be it certainly is provoking a heated debate, in the BMJ and the Lancet if nowhere else, although the subject is reputedly not one of the medical professions central concerns. In my reading around the subject I have discovered that the new discipline of EBM/EBP is indeed about basing ones practice on research findings, for that is what is meant by evidence, an attitude with which I am entirely in agreement. But I have to admit to being in some disagreement with those aspects of EBP/EBM that specify exactly what evidence is considered valid and what is not. It is for this reason that I have called this paper Our own kind of evidence.