Evidence-Based Care concerns promoting professionalism action in healthcare, where in which the healthcare provider offers high-quality care based on the most current scientific evidence. It is defined as "... the careful, explicit, and judicious use of the best evidential material and evidence to make decisions with individual patients in order to improve healthcare" (Offringa et al., 2008).
Since September 2012, special attention has been devoted to this theme by Research Centre Innovations in Care. Professionals strive for quality care, but this does not entail that all healthcare is 'evidence-based'. Healthcare providers that apply evidence-based practice and integrate this into their professional reasoning offer 'Evidence-Based Care'.
The research programme 'Evidence-Based Care' (EBC) focuses on the following objectives:
- The improvement of the knowledge and skills concerning the evidence-based action of students, teachers, and healthcare professionals working in the field.
- Supporting healthcare professionals in delivering EBC, with an emphasis on the dissemination and implementation of available evidence and, additionally, the development of evidence.
- The development of research into the effectiveness of interventions for common issues in professional practice.
- The performance of research into the effectiveness of designing and implementing innovations in professional practice.
At the moment, providing affordable healthcare is a major challenge. The question of whether an intervention is proved to be effective is important to everyone involved (patients, professionals, healthcare institutions, and insurers).
By initiating and performing practice-oriented research, the programme aims, in close collaboration with education and professional practice, to contribute to proper coordination between education and practice, and in doing so it aims to improve the quality of healthcare and to properly justify the provided care.