Evidence-based Medicine - Is This New?

I am hearing this catch phrase fairly regularly recently, and I have to ask - is this actually something new? i mean, newer than, say, 50 years old, at least? Because if it is, good lord what has medicine been based on up until now? Tea leaves? Magic 8 balls? The whims of medical practitioners? Old wives' tales? All those millions of research studies that have been undertaken in the last half century - were they done purely for their entertainment value?

I must be missing something.