The process that has led to formation of the Brazilian Working Group for Evidence Based Clinical Practice (EBCP) began in 2003 based on the initiative of Dr Hans Dohmann, following his participation in the McMaster Workshop in 2000 and 2001. In 2003 Dr Hans Dohmann, helped by Dr Helena Cramer, who had also been to McMaster, led the first Local EBCP Workshop for a small group of doctors belonging to a private Institution.

In 2004, Dr Suzana Silva and Dr Evandro Tinoco Mesquita attended the McMaster Workshop for initial training in EBCP and to further help establish the capacity required for an organized dissemination effort  in this area. Exploratory discussions with Dr Peter Wyer begun by Dr. Silva in 2004 led to an ongoing partnership with what has since become the Section on Evidence Based Health Care  at the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) in New York City under the directorship of Dr. Wyer, and to plans to bring expanded EBCP educational efforts to Brazil. The following year, Dr’s Silva and Wyer designed and opened a special track at the NYAM Evidence-Based Emergency Medicine Workshop, aimed at expanding the available expertise in EBCP training within the collaborating institutions in Rio.

A group of Brazilians doctors, Dr Andre Volschan, Dr Andrea Haddad, Dr Fabio Tuche, Dr Rodrigo Moreira and Dr Cramer, were the first to attend that track, which has continued through the present.  The dream of bringing the McMaster Working Group to Brazil was becoming into a reality. The pilot group, led by Dr. Silva, and with the support of Dr Dohmann and Dr Cramer, engaged in a weekly EBCP seminar as a means of further nurturing the training process begun at the New York workshop.

With the financial support of Pró-Cardíaco Hospital and the Department of Science and Technology of the Brazilian Ministry of Health (DECIT/MS), through FINEP (Financial Agency for Teaching and Research Projects), the First Brazilian EBCP Workshop was held in August 2006 in Itaipava. Five international tutors (Dr Gordon Guyatt, from McMaster University; Dr Luz Letelier, from Pontificia Universidad Catolic de Chile; Dr Peter Wyer, from Columbia University; Dr Thomas McGinn, from Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Dr Victor Montori, from Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and, more recently joined by Dr Deborah Cook of McMaster and Dr. Eddy Lang from McGill University in Montreal) participated and augmented the  local training capacity that was developing as a result of the above mentioned  efforts.

This first workshop included representatives of the National Institute of Orthopedic Trauma and from the DECIT/MCT. The resulting excitement attracted the attention of the Brazilian Health Ministry and led to a group of participants from several federal institutions in Rio, including the National Institute of Cardiology, at the second Brazilian EBCP Workshop, held in Angra dos Reis on December, 2007.

The continued success enjoyed by these activities has encouraged us to form and announce the Brazilian Working Group for Evidence Based Clinical Practice. This initiative seeks to engage public and not for profit institutions, with the cooperation and advice of international leaders in EBCP and Knowledge Translation, for the purpose of developing, disseminating, implement, and evaluating tools that may improve patient care and facilitate decision making for both health managers and practitioners.