It would be hard to find anyone or any group today making health policy recommendations who doesn't claim their conclusions are "evidence-based." But since recommendations vary considerably in some areas, such as whether there is a health benefit to reducing dietary sodium/salt, it should be important to all of us exactly how "evidence-based medicine" (EBM) works and how it fits into the overall process of producing health care or health policy decisions.
An interview in the June 19 issue of Health Affairs magazine illuminates the limits of EBM and the shadowy abuses of the term.
