Table 1.
Responses of Volunteer and Full-time Faculty to the Evidence-based Medicine Needs Assessment Instrument (N = 199)
| Volunteer | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Care (n = 106) | Subspecialists (n = 71) | Full Time (n = 22) | |
| Background and demographics | |||
| Female, % | 30 | 11* | 41 |
| Mean age (SD) | 44 (18) | 47 (9) | 47 (7) |
| Mean years since residency (SD) | 14 (8) | 16 (8) | 17 (8) |
| Research background, % | |||
| Essentially none | 52* | 9 | 5 |
| Minimal | 36 | 47 | 32 |
| Moderate/a lot | 11 | 44 | 54 |
| Paper published in peer review journal, % | 20* | 78 | 82 |
| Additional statistics/epidemiology training, % | 11 | 20 | 41* |
| CME issues | |||
| In the last 6 months, how have you stayed current and up to date in your medical knowledge? (Circle all that apply) | |||
| Go to meetings, % | 94 | 92 | 82 |
| Read journals weekly, % | 85 | 89 | 91 |
| Read about my patients, % | 76 | 59† | 86 |
| Drug company talks, % | 60* | 27 | 32 |
| Take classes, % | 23 | 17 | 32 |
| In your continuing medical education, to what extent are you learning about the EBM concepts? (Circle all that apply) | |||
| Have attended conference about EBM, % | 26 | 15 | 50* |
| Read about EBM concepts, % | 21 | 32 | 64‡ |
| Read EBM reviews (e.g., ACP Journal Club), % | 16 | 23 | 50‡ |
| Circle the top 3 methods you use to get answers to your questions | |||
| Use a textbook, % | 99 | 95 | 88 |
| Ask a colleague, % | 88 | 87 | 86 |
| Send patient for a consult, % | 68 | 23‡ | 41 |
| Perform medline search, % | 26‡ | 67 | 59 |
| Ask librarian to perform medline search, % | 12 | 18 | 29 |
| Discuss with drug rep, % | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| How many original clinical studies (not review articles) relevant to your practice do you read on average? | |||
| 0 to 3 per month, % | 64* | 36 | 41 |
| 1+ per week, % | 36 | 64 | 59 |
| Teaching EBM to medical learners | |||
| To what degree do you bring EBM concepts into your work with medical students or residents? (Circle all that apply) | |||
| Encourage to formulate patient care questions, % | 62 | 44† | 82 |
| Encourage to perform literature search, % | 41 | 54 | 77* |
| Discuss sensitivity and specificity with learner, % | 32 | 41 | 59† |
| Discuss relative risks/NNT with learner, % | 13 | 19 | 27 |
| Do not incorporate EBM into teaching, % | 36 | 29 | 5 |
| Test questions | |||
| Answered test questions correctly, % | |||
| Q1-understand relative risks | 69 | 68 | 86 |
| Q2-understand confidence intervals | 24 | 30 | 57* |
| Q3-understand likelihood ratios | 14 | 12 | 29 |
| Q4-understand sensitivity | 81 | 88 | 95* |
| Q5-understand medline searching | 13 | 14 | 43 |
| Validity criteria correct for faculty, n | 22 | 26 | 15 |
| Attempting to answer | |||
| Q6-studies about diagnostic tests, mean | 0.6 ± 1.2‡ | 1.0 ± 1.2 | 1.9 ± 1.6† |
| Q7-studies about therapy, mean | 1.6 ± 1.9 | 1.4 ± 1.4 | 2.9 ± 1.8† |
*
P < .01.
†
P < .05.
‡
P < .001.
NNT, number needed to treat.