Dr. Richardson discusses the various facets of evidence-based medicine—what it is, why we need it, and how to practice it. He engages in a discussion on how clinicians can learn to practice evidence-based medicine even if they have already completed their formal training. He also examines what it would take to incorporate evidence-based medicine into the newer curricula of medical schools, illustrating how his teaching institution is doing this.

Dr. Richardson is an academic general internist at the Georgia Health Sciences University/The University of Georgia Medical Partnership Campus, in Athens, Georgia, where he is professor of medicine and campus associate dean for curriculum. His principal scholarly interests are in clinical epidemiology, evidence-based health care, and medical education. He is a co-author of the book by Straus et al., Evidence-based Medicine: How To Practice and Teach It, Fourth Edition (2011). Dr. Richardson is a member of the international Evidence-based Medicine Working Group, which authored the Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature series in the Journal of the American Medical Association, now published in book form. Dr. Richardson continues to work on the challenges of integrating evidence into clinical decisions, particularly in evidence-based clinical diagnosis. He also is working to incorporate evidence into the new curriculum at his institution and in medical education at all levels.