Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competi

Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors�� contributions All authors contributed equally to this manuscript. GM responded to the comments of the referees and rewrote the article to its present form. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgement FoRegorafenib chemical structure llowing members of the Medical-Technical Advisory Board are acknowledged: Corinne Liesnard and Olivier Denis (ULB-Erasme), Pierette Melin (CHU Li��ge), Denis Pierard (UZ Brussel), Marianne Van Esbroeck (Institute of Tropical Medicine), Geert Leroux-Roels and Geert Claeys (UZ Gent), Greet Ieven (UZ Antwerpen), Johan Van Eldere (UZ Leuven), Patrick Goubau and Michel Delm��e (UCLouvain), Dominique Collard, Michel Stalpaert, Reinoud Cartuyvels and Anne Dediste (Sentinel laboratories), Genevi��ve Haucotte (INAMI/RIZIV), Bernard Debbaut and Marc Moens (Insurance committee INAMI/RIZIV), Nadine Lambion and Sophie Lokietek (French community), Ruud Mak (Flemish Community), Michiel Costers and Evelyne Van Gastel (Federal authority), Johan Bots and Jacques Waegenaere (Brussels Capital Region), G��rard Krause (external expert, Germany) Henriette De Valk (external expert, France), Johan Frans and Georges Mascart (Medical Trade Union), Patrick De Mol (Superior Health Council), Herman Van Oyen and Sabine Lauwers (Presidents of MTAB). We would like to acknowledge Franck Van Loock, Carl Suetens, Germaine Hanquet and Bernard China for their initial work on this project. This project receives support from the Belgian Ministry of Social Affairs through a fund within the Health Insurance System.

In recent decades, evidence-based methods have been successfully applied in many areas of health care and prevention [1,2]. However, the development and appropriate use of evidence-based guidelines seem more problematic in the field of occupational medicine [1,3]. Research shows that doctors�� attitudes towards guidelines are a good predictor of their intention to use them [3]. Only a few studies have assessed the attitudes and perceptions of occupational physicians (OPs) towards evidence-based medicine (EBM) and the majority appears to have a positive attitude [3-7]. The average degree of adherence to recommendations in guidelines is no higher than 60 to 70%, but there is a large variation between physicians and between different guidelines [8].

Lack of time, limited availability of relevant guidelines and poor EBM skills are the main barriers Batimastat that prevent occupational physicians from practicing evidence-based medicine [3-7]. In addition, some authors argue that the application of evidence-based methods is hampered because occupational medicine is practiced within a framework of labour law and governmental regulations [7,9]. In Belgium, occupational health care is compulsory and the current legislation determines to a considerable extent its context and content [10]. All workers (3.

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