Abstract
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) requires the retrieval and ranking of relevant evidence by epistemological strength, to identify the most appropriate evidence to inform guidelines and policies, with a preference for robust evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs), systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. The explosive growth of the scientific literature and the emergence of new sources of evidence, including social media, case reports, and large-scale observational studies, as well as the free-text nature of this large body of evidence, collectively make it difficult to appraise and select the best available evidence.