Overview

The Evidence-Based Practice Research Program at Mayo Clinic conducts research to evaluate and summarize all available evidence on a particular health care issue.

Investigators in the Evidence-Based Practice Research Program perform comprehensive literature searches and advanced qualitative and quantitative synthesis methods to conduct systematic reviews, meta-analysis, meta-regression, meta-narrative synthesis, and methodology research.

Our program is one of only a few in the U.S. currently designated and funded as an evidence-based practice center (EPC) by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Evidence-based practice centers like ours at Mayo Clinic review all relevant scientific literature on a wide spectrum of clinical and health services topics to produce various types of evidence reports. The evidence reports can be used for informing and developing coverage decisions, quality measures, educational materials and tools, clinical practice guidelines, and research agendas. EPCs also conduct research on the methodology of evidence synthesis.

In health care, evidence requires synthesis because a single research study rarely provides all the information needed to make a decision and because studies often provide conflicting findings. A stand-alone study can be biased or limited by other factors.

Therefore, the goals of evidence synthesis are to:

• Provide the least biased and most precise and applicable results
• Lead to evidence-based practice and policy decisions
• Ensure that resources are not wasted pursuing questions that have already been answered
• Create future research agendas by identifying gaps in knowledge and methodology

Read more about the research projects conducted by the Evidence-Based Practice Research Program.