Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Clinical Faculty Members of Alborz University of Medical Sciences Towards Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and Its Using

Evidence based medicine (EBM) is an approach to improve the quality of clinical decision making, treatment and care provided to patients. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of faculty members of Alborz University of Medical Sciences about EBM.
A cross sectional study was conducted in 2015 and 40 physicians participated. Data were collected by a valid and reliable structured questionnaire consisting 17 knowledge items, 8 attitude items and 12 items for practices about EBM. Using SPSS software version 19 data analyses was done.
From a total of 49 faculty members 40 responded the questionnaires in which 62.5% were female, the mean average age was 40.6 years and mean time of job experience was 8.1 years. About half of the respondents had participated in an EBM workshop, 10% of the participants have stated that do not know EBM and 37.5% had low knowledge, only 7.5% had adequate knowledge. Ninety percent of the respondents believed that EBM has an important role in promoting quality of care and 82% of them were interested to take part in EBM workshops. The information source for clinical practice in 70% of the participants was the text book, 55% Cochrane, and 45% clinical experience.
Faculty members had a positive attitude toward EBM; although a vast majority of them claimed that they practice based on evidence in clinical settings, about half of them stated had not adequate knowledge about EBM. Therefore, it is necessary to keep their knowledge up to date.