Clarifying the Concept of Evidence-Based Practice in Iranian Traditional Medicine from Expert's Viewpoint

Evidence-based medicine has achieved increasing importance in scientific societies. In this regard, Traditional Iranian medicine (TIM), which has recently attracted the Iranian academic society, should employ valid scientific evidence to confirm its efficacy and effectiveness. Therefore, the current study clarifies the concept of knowledge-based practice in TIM from the experts’ viewpoint. This qualitative study was conducted by individual face-to-face deep interviews to obtain the opinions of experts of TIM about the concept of evidence-based practice. Sampling was goal-oriented, and information gathering was performed by semi-organized interviews with some open questions asked by the researcher. In the study, the four main themes of 1- necessity of carrying out research in this field and documentation of TIM; 2- the concept of evidence-based practice in TIM; 3- limitations of evidence-based practice in Iranian traditional medicine; and 4- the differences between carrying out research in modern and Iranian traditional medicine were addressed. According to the research findings, evidence-based practice and using valid references is necessary in TIM to confirm its efficacy and effectiveness.