A Review of Evidenced-based Medical Education at Universities in and outside Iran

Abstract

Evidence-based Medicine is a new approach for physicians to integrate their clinical experiences. It can provide the best evidence to apply such experiences to the right and precise diagnostic and treatment decisions. There have been a lot of studies concerning teaching methods in and efficiency of evidence-based medicine in recent years. As such, the present study, with an analytic view, aims to deal with diverse teaching methods and the levels of efficiency in evidence-based medicine. This research, with an analytical-theoretical view, is a library-based study, seeking data from articles in scientific data-bases. Primarily, 42 articles were reviewed. Out of them, 21 articles with more data on teaching methods and level of efficiency were included in the study. The review revealed that evidence-based medical education would usually start in the early years of medical education. Although lecturing was the dominant teaching method, other methods as integrated approaches, interaction, and group discussion were also common. In addition the studies on the level of efficacy were more concerned with assessing the students’ satisfaction and knowledge but not the application of evidence-based medicine. Therefore, in medical education more attention should be paid to interactive and integrated methods with an interdisciplinary approach. Evidence-based medical education should be presented step by step, based on the students’ educational needs in basic sciences and clinical levels. It is necessary to have more studies on the efficiency of evidence-based medicine in practice and students’ behavioral change.