Advances in Medical Education and Practice (Feb 2022)
Jordanian Radiologists’ Perspectives and Application of Evidence-Based Radiology in Clinical Practice
Abstract
Maram Alakhras,1 Dana S Al-Mousa,1 Duaa Alwawi2 1Department of Allied Medical Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 2Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Jordan, Amman, JordanCorrespondence: Maram Alakhras, Tel +96227201000 Ext 26947, Email [email protected]: To evaluate radiologists’ education, knowledge and skills of research, attitude toward evidence-based radiology (EBR), understanding of terms and use of related published work in clinical practice and the association between these variables and sociodemographic characteristics. We also aim to assess the availability of resources and to identify sources and the main barriers to implementing EBR.Materials and Methods: A total of 87 radiologists completed a questionnaire, which consisted of eight sections related to radiologists’ demographic characteristics, and EBR-related questions. Descriptive statistics were used, and the association between EBR-related parts and sociodemographic characteristics was performed.Results: Ninety-three percent of the radiologists believed that EBR is necessary in practice. Only 40% received formal training in search strategies and 29.9% in critical appraisal of research literature during academic preparation. Moreover, 21– 62% of the respondents completely understand specific terms related to EBR. Sixty-three percent stated that they can access relevant databases and the Internet at workplace. Research articles were only used by 24% to make a clinical decision. Almost 50% reported that they read or reviewed ≤ 1 article per month. The primary barrier to implementing EBR was the lack of colleagues’ support. Understanding terms and the number of articles used in clinical decision were significantly related to education (P-value=0.001, 0.007) and hospital section (P-value=0.002, 0.027) respectively.Conclusion: Radiologists showed positive attitude toward EBR. However, there is a lack in information resources, colleagues’ support, use of published literature, understanding of research terms and the ability of radiologists to access relevant databases at workplaces.Graphical Abstract: Keywords: clinical decision, research evidence, evidence-based radiology
