Your opinion is important
10/10/07 20:42
Is it the time for Evidence Based Plant Protection?
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions, integrating personal professional expertise and the best available external evidence from systematic research. The concept of EBP evolved in response to technological advances and the pressure to increase efficiency and reduce economical costs. Although it is a significant part of the medical profession since 1991 and recently it was adopted as a priority by veterinary medicine, this approach has not been explored in plant pathology. The development of evidence-based plant protection (EBPP) can be useful to phytopathologists at any stage of their career to apply evidence to the decision-making. To date, crop protection practice often is provided by expert opinion, case reports and personal experience in order to make a decision. However, EBPP offers another approach following a standardized methodology, and expresses the benefits of diagnostic tests and treatments using mathematical methods, calculating likelihood ratios, pre-test and post-test probability of a disease and threshold of treatments. This approach suggests that the evidence should be based on meta-analysis summarizing the results of a number of randomized trials and a systematic review. The adoption of evidence based practice and the development of EBPP would require three levels of action: i) research, to generate evidence as a report of primary or secondary research, following an accurate methodology for diagnostics, treatments and prognostics; ii) practice, that requires developing skills to generate and find the appropriate methodology, appraise the literature and apply this evidence to the decision-making plans and iii) use of EBPP, which requires the development of databases and web pages created by phytopathologists.
Dr. Antonio Olmos.
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions, integrating personal professional expertise and the best available external evidence from systematic research. The concept of EBP evolved in response to technological advances and the pressure to increase efficiency and reduce economical costs. Although it is a significant part of the medical profession since 1991 and recently it was adopted as a priority by veterinary medicine, this approach has not been explored in plant pathology. The development of evidence-based plant protection (EBPP) can be useful to phytopathologists at any stage of their career to apply evidence to the decision-making. To date, crop protection practice often is provided by expert opinion, case reports and personal experience in order to make a decision. However, EBPP offers another approach following a standardized methodology, and expresses the benefits of diagnostic tests and treatments using mathematical methods, calculating likelihood ratios, pre-test and post-test probability of a disease and threshold of treatments. This approach suggests that the evidence should be based on meta-analysis summarizing the results of a number of randomized trials and a systematic review. The adoption of evidence based practice and the development of EBPP would require three levels of action: i) research, to generate evidence as a report of primary or secondary research, following an accurate methodology for diagnostics, treatments and prognostics; ii) practice, that requires developing skills to generate and find the appropriate methodology, appraise the literature and apply this evidence to the decision-making plans and iii) use of EBPP, which requires the development of databases and web pages created by phytopathologists.
Dr. Antonio Olmos.
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