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Of studies, syntheses, synopses, summaries, and systems: the "5S" evolution of information services for evidence-based healthcare decisions

McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Key Words: evidence-based medicine • information systems

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Success in delivering evidence-based health care relies heavily on the ready availability of current best evidence about diagnosis, treatment, and prevention options for health disorders, ideally tailored to the characteristics and context of the individual patient or population and the resources of the provider. While existing information resources fall short of perfection, the past decade has seen considerable progress, and an attractive array of services is now available for many healthcare decisions. Providers and consumers of evidence-based health care can help themselves to the best current evidence by recognising the most "evolved" information services in the topic areas of concern to them.

A "4S" model for the organisation of evidence-based information services, proposed several years ago,¹ begins with original studies at the foundation; syntheses (that is, systematic reviews, such as Cochrane Reviews) at the next level up; then synopses (very brief descriptions of original articles and reviews, such as those . . . [Full text of this article]