Original articleTraditional Korean medicine practitioners' attitudes toward evidence based medicine: A qualitative study

IntroductionPractitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are willing to use EBM as guidance for their practice. Through semi-structured interviews with physicians of traditional Korean medicine (TKM), this study sought to identify the barriers to the implementation of EBM in CAM, and solutions.MethodologyQualitative study through semi-structured interviews with 17 physicians of traditional Korean medicine. We received verbal consent before the interview. Analysis of interviews were based on 'grounded theory'.ResultsAll participants agreed on the necessity of EBM in CAM, but not all utilized EBM. The barriers were categorized into three themes. They included general barriers, barriers that are due to specific environment of TKM, and barriers that are specifically due to characteristics of TKM. Solutions to these barriers were improved quality of research, better access to research, EBM-friendly environment, accumulation of data, education and new tools to incorporate CAM theory.ConclusionsThere were limitations to this study. The findings in our study represent a small number of TKM practitioners. Participants were residents of university hospital while many TKM practitioners worked in a clinic. Our study showed that TKM practitioners agreed with the necessity of EBM and were willing to implement it. Through more high quality research data and better access to research, practitioners' utilization of EBM will become greater. This can be done with more resources and regulation of the research. In addition, research should be easy to read and reflect real practice. Also, TKM practitioners did not want research that distorts the essence of their practices.