Evaluation of SBMU Resident's Knowledge and Use of Evidence-Based Medical Databases and Concepts

With the development of the Internet and databases and the increasing need to institutionalize evidence-based medicine, physician's awareness and use of evidence-based medical databases and concepts are considered to be necessary. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge and use of evidence-based medical concepts and databases among residents of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU).
The present study is an applied and descriptive research. The population of this study comprised 192 SBMU residents in 2016. A questionnaire was used for data collection and SPSS software was applied for data analysis.
The findings showed that residents obtained 2.99 for knowledge and 2.73 for the use of evidence-based medical databases out of a total average of 5 points, which indicates that their knowledge and practical use of evidence-based medical databases are moderate. Databases about which residents have the highest knowledge and practical use are UpToDate, PubMed Clinical Queries, and Cochrane, respectively.
The majority of residents at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences do not have sufficient awareness about databases and concepts of evidence-based medicine; in fact, most of the resources that are used to answer their information needs are non-evidence-based resources. Therefore, planning to accept evidence-based medicine and databases and teach them to residents is essential.