Types of Question

Sometimes, EBP is criticised for being too concerned with RCTs, and not other types of research. Often, this is accompanied by the comment that there are no RCTs which are relevant to the topic at hand.

It's true that EBP does place a lot of emphasis on RCTs, principally because they're the best way we know of for telling whether a treatment works or not.

However, the definition of EBP uses the phrase "best evidence", not "RCTs", so let's reflect on that for a moment.

Consider the question: "Does smoking cause cancer?"

Would you expect to find an RCT which answers this question?

Yes

No