Evidence-based practice for individuals or groups: let’s make a difference

The aim of applying science into practice is to deliver high-quality health care.
Thinking about teaching the necessary accompanying skills, a distinction can be
made between using evidence for individual patient care and using scientific
knowledge for the development of protocols or guidelines for groups of patients or
professionals. In this paper, these two ways of applying science into practice are
being considered. We plea for explicating the differences between the individual
patient and a group of patients or professionals when applying scientific knowledge
in the decision-making process. The acknowledgment of these differences facilitates the teaching of the accompanying competences and different CanMEDS roles.