Emergency Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Barriers to the Implementation of Evidence Based Medicine in Ethiopia: A Systematic Study

Delelegn Emwodew Yehualashet*, Atsike Belay Eshetu, Mentesnote Yemere Zeleke, Mesfine Sertse Gebremedihn, Dawit Girma Mengesha and Daniel Nigusse Mamo

Background: Despite the importance of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) in improving the quality of healthcare, many barriers hamper its successful implementation. Evidence on these barriers could facilitate interventions and health policy directions aimed at optimizing best clinical practices. This study aimed to identify the barriers to EBM implementation in Ethiopia through a systematic Study of the literature.

Methods: PubMed, EBSCO, Google Scholar, and Semantic Scholar were searched for relevant articles. Peer-Reviewed primary studies were eligible for inclusion if they assessed barriers to EBM in Ethiopia. The Qualsyst tool was used to assess the quality of included studies. The barriers identified in the included studies were analyzed based on their frequency of occurrence among the studies.

Results: This systematic Study summarized the results of 11 empirical studies and identified 20 barriers to EBM in Ethiopia. The most common barriers reported in these studies were a lack of EBM knowledge, inadequate resources, inadequate time, lack of EBM training, difficulty in interpreting research findings, lack of management support, overloading of patients, and negative attitudes towards EBM.

Conclusion: This Study identified a variety of potential barriers to EBM implementation in Ethiopia. Providing short-term EBM training or incorporating EBM into the medical curriculum, time-management workshops, resource provision, and adequate support are needed to facilitate EBM implementation in Ethiopia. Further studies should build on this evidence and focus on developing a context-specific EBM implementation framework.

Published Date: 2022-08-05; Received Date: 2022-07-05