based King Fahd Medical City (KFMC) will organize the 4th Saudi Annual Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Conference and Workshop in Riyadh from April 19-22, 2008. Held in collaboration with the National Gulf Center for Evidence-Based Medicine (NGCEBM), the conference and the workshop will be held under the title of “Applying Evidence, Present and Future.” Dr. Haya Al-Fozan ,consultant at the in-vitro fertilization unit of King Abdul Aziz Medical City and NGCEBM director, said this conference is the fourth of its kind held in Saudi Arabia. NGCEBM held its first conference ever at King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh in 2006. That was about “Revival of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM).” The second conference, held at King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Ahsa, focused on challenges facing EBM. The third EBM conference was held in Jeddah in collaboration with King Abdul Aziz Medical City in 2007. Fozan said the fourth conference will be supplemented with four workshops, spread over three days of deliberations, to discuss topics pertaining to EBM, training cadres and the basics of health care based on evidence and comprehensive analysis of the evidence. Evidence-based medicine emerged in the 1990s as a way to improve and evaluate patient care. It involves combining the best research evidence with the patient's values to make decisions about medical care. Looking at all available medical studies and literature that pertain to an individual patient or a group of patients helps doctors properly diagnose illnesses, choose the best testing plan, and select the best treatments and methods of disease prevention. Using evidence-based medicine techniques for large groups of patients with the same illness, doctors can develop practice guidelines for evaluation and treatment of particular conditions. In addition to improving treatment, such guidelines can help individual physicians and institutions measure their performance and identify areas for further study and improvement, according to the journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). NGCEBM is officially recognized by the GCC Ministers of Health as an EBM referral center for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Region. A decree was issued containing this recognition during the 57th conference held in Geneva on May 19, 2004 (decree 6 item 3). __
