Objective To study and analyze both merits and demerits of 4 famous foreign evidence-based medicine databases, so as to provide references for the development of Chinese evidence-based medicine databases. Methods By means of document analysis and web search, the databases including UpToDate, MD Consult, Clinical Evidence and DynaMed were comprehensively analyzed from the following aspects: management ideas, editing process, personalized services and so on. Results a) Time of foundation: UpToDate founded in 1992 is the earliest-established evidence-based medicine database; b) Management ideas: All 4 databases aim to integrate all the high quality evidences about some clinical topics and help doctors to make the most reasonable decisions at present; c) Editing process: The inclusive criteria of Clinical Evidence is more strict than other databases, for the evidence needs to go through 18 steps before it is included; and d) Update rate: DynaMed updates every day as the fastest than other databases. Conclusion A mature evidence-based medicine database needs a powerful methodology team, b financial support and a large number of literature services. Besides learning good foreign experiences, it is also very important to assemble a methodology team, and particularly to integrate domestic characteristics for the establishment of domestic evidence-based medicine database.