About Us

Our Mission

To improve the health and lives of people by providing patient-oriented evidence that matters in a rapid and accessible form.

Our Vision

We will develop tools that will give health care professionals the most relevant and valid information currently available when and where they need it.

Essential Evidence Plus is owned by the publishing company John Wiley & Sons.

Founded in 1807, Wiley provides must-have content and services to its customers worldwide. One of its most notable services is Wiley InterScience, the online repository of content from 2,500 journals, books, reference works, databases, laboratory manuals and The Cochrane Library.

While they have become synonymous with evidence-based medicine in primary care through their writing and research published in the British Medical Journal, the Journal of Family Practice, JAMA, Lancet, and other journals, co-founders Drs. Barry, Ebell and Slawson all remain practicing physicians with an active patient list. In fact, all three physicians began their careers in solo, rural practice. This enables them to develop tools that work in the examination room.

InfoPOEMs® was founded in the 1990s by:

Henry Barry, MD, MS, is Associate Professor and the Senior Associate Chair in the Department of Family Practice at Michigan State University. Dr. Barry attended medical school at the University of Maryland, and did his residency in Family Practice in Lansing, Michigan. Following residency, he spent four years in Appalachia with the National Health Service Corps. He subsequently joined MSU in 1989. Not having enough pain in his life, in 1995, he completed a Master's degree in Clinical Research Design & Statistical Analysis at the University of Michigan. An active teacher at many levels, he has also been the PI, Co-PI, or a collaborator on numerous grants. He served as the co-director of the Michigan Consortium for Family Practice Research, a collaboration among the family practice departments at MSU, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. He also serves as the director of GRIN, a statewide practice-based research network. Dr. Barry's scholarly interests include the areas of evidence-based medicine, information application and evaluation of common ambulatory problems. He and his wife, Terrie, are the proud parents of Elizabeth.

Mark H. Ebell MD, MS, is Associate Professor in the Department of Family Practice at Michigan State University, former editor of the Journal of Family Practice, and now Deputy Editor for Evidence-Based Medicine of the American Family Physician. A graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, Family Medicine residency, and School of Public Health, he is an experienced researcher and author or co-editor of 3 books and over 100 scholarly articles. Dr. Ebell initially developed InfoRetriever as a tool for his practice, and was the original software architect for InfoPOEMs®. Dr. Ebell spent several years in solo rural practice in Georgia early in his career, and now practices part-time with Athens Primary Care in Athens, Georgia, where he lives. He and his wife Laura enjoy bike tours, cooking, and parenting their three golden retrievers.

Keith Hume, ScD, is a graduate of the University of Buffalo and Boston University, where he received his doctor of science degree in clinical psychology in 1977. After spending time at Danvers State Hospital, where he was the chief psychologist, Dr. Hume joined the faculty of University of Virginia where he taught in the Department of Counselor Education. In 1982, he co-founded and was the clinical director of Moutainwood Treatment Center, a residential treatment center specializing in the treatment of individuals experiencing alcohol or chemical dependency. For the past twenty years, Dr. Hume has had a private practice in Charlottesville, VA. He currently is the Vice President and Publisher of InfoPOEMs®.

Allen F. Shaughnessy, PharmD, is Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Tufts University. He received his doctor of pharmacy degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and also completed a faculty development fellowship there. He is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist and is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Along with Dr. David Slawson, he has developed the concepts of "Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters" (POEMs). He is a section editor for the Journal of Family Practice POEMs and co-editor of Evidence-Based Practice: POEMs for Primary Care. Dr. Shaughnessy has written over 120 papers in the areas of pharmacology, family practice education, prescription-writing, and medical information management.

David C. Slawson, MD, is the B. Lewis Barnett, Jr. Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the Director and Founder of the Center for Information Mastery™ and holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Health Evaluation Sciences. He also serves as assistant editor for The Journal of Family Practice POEMs and is a member of the editorial board for The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, the American Family Physician, and BMJ USA. Dr. Slawson and Dr. Allen Shaughnessy were awarded the 2002 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Innovative Program Award for their work together in developing the Information Mastery™ curriculum. Dr. Slawson is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral training in Family Medicine at the University of Virginia. He is the father of four children, including triplets!