Evidence Needs, Training Demands, And Opportunities For Knowledge Translation In Social Security And Insurance Medicine: A European Survey

Objective: To perform a European survey of the evidence needs and training demands of insurance medicine professionals related to professional tasks and evidence-based practice. Design: International survey. Subjects: Professionalsworking in insurance medicine. Methods: Experts designed an online questionnaire including 26 questions related to 4 themes: evidence needs; training demands; evidence-seeking behaviour; and attitudes towards evidence-based medicine. Descriptive statistics were presented by country/conference and the total sample. Results: A total of 782 participants responded. Threequarter of participants experienced evidence needs at least once a week, related to mental disorders (79%), musculoskeletal disorders (67%) and occupational health (65%). Guidelines (76%) and systematic reviews (60%) were the preferred types of evidence and were requested for assessment of work capacity (64%) and prognosis of return to-work (51%). Evidence-based medicine was thought to facilitate decision-making in insurance medicine (95%). Fifty-two percent of participants felt comfortable finding, reading, interpreting, and ap? plying evidence. Countries expressed similar needs for reviews on typical topics. Conclusion: This study reveals evidence gaps in key areas of insurance medicine, supporting the need for further research, guidelines and training in evidence-based insurance medicine. Importantly, insurance medicine professionals should recognize that evidence-based practice is crucial in producing high-quality assessments.