Does a stubborn commitment to 'evidence' stifle innovative thinking?

Physiotherapy research activity, and the extent to which our clinical practice appears supported by good science, has grown at a dramatic rate. There are now over 19 000 clinical trials and almost 4000 systematic reviews relating to physiotherapy practice published worldwide (PEDro 2013) and this is likely to continue to expand. The exponential growth that has already occurred would have amazed physiotherapy researchers of 40 or 50 years ago who, while publishing the results of their diverse research studies in a wide range of general medical and physiotherapy journals, were seldom reporting randomised controlled trials.