Finding evidence based answers to clinical questions is difficult

Doctors face many obstacles when trying to obtain evidence based answers to clinical questions. Ely and colleagues (p 710) conducted a qualitative study including academic generalist doctors, family doctors, and medical librarians and identified 59 obstacles. The most important six were the excessive time required to find information, difficulty modifying the original question, difficulty selecting an optimal search strategy, failure of a resource to cover the topic, not knowing when to stop searching, and inadequate synthesis of multiple bits of evidence into a clinically useful statement. The authors conclude that addressing these obstacles could lead to better patient care.