Over the past decade,evidence-based medicine (EBM)is increasingly advocated as the “gold standard” of clinical practice.In 2001,the New York Times identified it as one of the ideas that made a difference,1 although EBM was still an academic concept in 1990.In 1996,Sackett et al2 first defined EBM as the conscientious,explicit,and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.It means integrating the best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values.In China,EBM related studies seem to still be a “step behind”.For example,a PubMed search of “spine and China,limited to randomized controlled trial (RCT)” revealed two citations before 2000,but by 2012,the number was 183;compared with total published papers on spine limited to RCT found 842 citations before 2000 and by 2012,3895citations.