[Evidence-based medicine. 1. The transfer of research results to clinical practice. The Italian Group for Evidence-Based Medicine-GIMBE].

Evidence-based Medicine, born officially in November 1992, during last five years is grown everywhere, showing its power to influence virtually all aspects of health care: clinical practice, medical education, patient information and health policy. Because of the raising interest also in Italy for the new paradigm of clinical practice, "Recently Progress in Medicina" launches a series of articles with the aim of giving to physicians tools and skills for searching, critically appraising and implementing in their own decisions the best results of clinical research. For a better explanation of practical aspects of Evidence-based Medicine, the first article discusses about several obstacles existing in transferring correctly and timely the results of research into clinical practice, and about the potential role of Evidence-based Medicine in the evolution of the medical art and the health systems of the third millennium.