Phsicians'perception of evidence based medicine: a survey in Lahore, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

EBM is a growing worldwide movement in health care, that aims to bring the best evidence from medical research to the bedside, clinic and community. EBM appeared early in 1990 and since then it has developed and expanded worldwide. It has met a considerable success over the past three decades in promoting critical scientific and practical awareness of the status of different after research claims to therapeutic knowledge. This subject of EBM is only theoreticcally known to only some of our physicians. We assessed physician's attitude towards EBM in a cross-sectional study conducted in the district of Lahore, Pakistan; from March 2005 to August 2006, by a self-administered questionnaire [proforma], which included questions on whether the physicians were in favour of EBM, and at what level EBM should be taught. A fairly reasonable response [63.6%] was received from the physicians and among these, most had a fair idea about EBM. They believed that EBM, if practiced, will improve patient care [68.8%], can reduce health care cost [59.1%] and will update the knowledge of the physicians [92.7%]. A large majority [91%] believed that EBM and its usefulness should be taught only at postgraduate level