The “evidence-based medicine” movement has grown quickly since its introduction to the medical literature a few years ago.1 Although there has been some confusion as to what it is and what it isn’t2 it is impossible to argue against the basic premise that healthcare professionals should have access to the best and most up to date evidence when recommending an intervention for any given patient predicament. The movement has been facilitated by the parallel development of the Cochrane Collaboration, which aims to provide in depth reviews of all randomised controlled clinical trials in any given subject area, thus providing one of the most important information databases to aid the practice of evidence-based medicine.3 The Cochrane Collaboration has grown massively over the four years of its life, and now involves centres worldwide and a database that includes over 1500 reviews4 and material of relevance to almost all aspects of medical practice. The Cochrane database is being used more and more as an aid to rational management. How far has rheumatology got within this important movement? A review of the 1997 Cochrane database4 suggests that our …