[Attitudes of health personnel in a university hospital toward evidence-based medicine].

Over the last few years the concepts and methods of the evidence-based medicine (EBM) have been increasingly recognized and applied in the Croatian medical community. Central Medical Library at Zagreb university Medical School has been developing a web-based service aimed to help practitioners find best evidence for solving specific clinical problems. Therefore, the health personnel affiliated to a teaching hospital were surveyed. The questionnaire included 18 questions evaluating attitudes towards EBM. It was displayed by the library's information desk. There were 204 respondents, 62% of them clinical specialists. Most respondents agreed that EBM is useful in clinical decision making (57.4%) as well as in improving patient care (55.4%). Lack of personal time (60.8%) and insufficient skills (60.3%) were percieved as the main barriers to practising EBM. The vast majority of respondents (96.6%) reported never having received EBM training. The study results show that medical librarians can play an expanded role in saving the practitioners' time by searching EBM resources and assessing the quality of the information.