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Textbook of Palliative Care pp 1717–1736Cite as

Evidence-Based Practice in Palliative Care

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Abstract

Many of the chapters in this Textbook provide state of the art, that is, evidence-based recommendations for the practice of palliative care and palliative medicine. This chapter on “Evidence-based practice in palliative care” will focus on the principles, advantages, and limitations of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and evidence-based practice (EBP) in general and specifically within the field of palliative care. We will discuss the concepts of EBM/EBP from a historical perspective, their role within the field of palliative care, the way EBM/EBP is practiced by a clinician in a stepwise approach, and critically reflect on how these concepts have developed over the past decade. The development of EBM/EPB has had an enormous impact on the way medicine is practiced today. It should not however be considered cookbook medicine. Its future lies in generating useable evidence that can be combined with context, professional expertise, and patient preferences to provide optimal treatment and care to individual patients.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VUB-UGhent End-of-Life Care Research Group, Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care and Department of Clinical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

    Lieve Van den Block

  2. Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

    Jan Vandevoorde

Authors
  1. Lieve Van den Block
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  2. Jan Vandevoorde
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lieve Van den Block .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine,Palliative Care, HammondCare, The University of Sydney School of Medicine, Sydney, Australia

    Roderick Duncan MacLeod

  2. VUB-UGhent End-of-Life Care Research Group, Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care and Department of Clinical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

    Lieve Van den Block

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Van den Block, L., Vandevoorde, J. (2019). Evidence-Based Practice in Palliative Care. In: MacLeod, R., Van den Block, L. (eds) Textbook of Palliative Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77740-5_111

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