Including Lived Experience in Evidence-based Medicine Education: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is foundational to modern clinical training, yet traditional EBM education often privileges published research and clinician expertise while underemphasizing patient and community knowledge. Calls to strengthen person-centered care, disability justice, and equity-oriented practice have increased interest in integrating lived experience into EBM teaching to shape how learners understand evidence, uncertainty, and decision-making. This scoping review aimed to map the literature on including lived experience in EBM education for medical learners, with attention to pedagogical approaches, learning outcomes, implementation considerations, and evidence gaps. Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension for scoping reviews framework, we systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus from inception to July 2025. Eligible studies described EBM teaching interventions or curricula that incorporated lived-experience partners in design, delivery, assessment, or learning activities. Twenty-six studies were included. Four themes emerged: (1) redefining “evidence” through epistemic plurality (integrating experiential knowledge alongside research and clinical expertise); (2) improving relevance, humility, and shared decision-making skills (linking appraisal to values, context, and real-world trade-offs); (3) power, tokenism, and ethical partnership (compensation, emotional labor, representation, and safeguarding); and (4) measurement limits and uneven integration across EBM competencies (stronger emphasis on attitudes and communication than on rigorous appraisal outcomes). Including lived experience in EBM education is a promising approach to strengthen relevance, equity, and shared decision-making by broadening what counts as evidence and how evidence is applied. However, the literature is constrained by variable definitions, tokenistic risks, and limited evaluation using validated EBM competence measures.