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Can you teach EBM skills?

This post courtesy ofAnne Taylor-Vaisey: This is a forwarded message from Laure Perrier at the University of Toronto

Faculty of Medice Office of Continuing Education. Laure and Joanne Goldman

disseminate a CME literature report entitled Research Digest. You can

read past digests here:

http://www.ktp.utoronto.ca/events/archives/researchDigest/index.htm Research Question:
How can evidence-based medicine skills be

effectively taught? Does teaching EBM skills improve clinical

practice?

Articles:

1. Teaching practicing surgeons critical appraisal skills with an

Internet-based journal club: A randomized, controlled trial.

MacRae HM, Regehr G, McKenzie M, Henteleff H, Taylor M, Barkun J,

Fitzgerald W, Hill A, Richard C, Webber EM, McLeod RS. Surgery 2004;136:641-6.

PubMed Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15349113

2. Teaching evidence-based medicine skills can change practice in a

community hospital.

Straus SE, Ball

C, Balcombe N, Sheldon J, McAlister FA. J Gen Intern Med 2005;20:340-343.

PubMed Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15857491

Summary:

MacRae et al. conducted

a randomized controlled study to evaluate the effectiveness of an Internet-based

journal club in developing critical appraisal skills in practicing general

surgeons. The intervention consisted of eight monthly clinical and methodologic

articles, moderated listserve discussions, and methodologic and clinical

reviews. The control group received the clinical articles and had online access

to medical and surgical journals. Physicians in the intervention group performed

better on a test of critical appraisal skills than those in the control group.

Straus et al. conducted a before/after study in a

UK

hospital to

examine whether a multifaceted evidence-based medicine intervention changed

clinical practice. The intervention consisted of an EBM training c! ourse of

seven 1-hour sessions, an EBM syllabus and textbook, and evidence-based

resources on the hospital network. According to discharge summaries for patients

admitted before and after the intervention, patients admitted after the

intervention were significantly more likely to receive therapies proven to be

beneficial in randomized controlled trials, and the trials supporting these

therapies were significantly more likely to be high quality than before the

intervention.

Implications:

ยง These

studies demonstrate the importance of both assessing effective ways to teach EBM

skills as well as whether possession of these skills is translated into improved

clinical outcomes. The critical next stage, an RCT of EBM teaching on clinical

behaviour and outcomes, is currently being performed by Straus.

Further

reading:

Critical

appraisal skills training for health care professionals: a randomized controlled

trial.

Taylor

RS,

Reeves BC,

Ewings

PE

, Taylor

RJ. BMC Medical Education; 2004 7;4(1):30. Full-Text

Search

the RDRB (Research & Development Resource Base):

For more

articles search the RDRB - available at no cost online at: http://www.cme.utoronto.ca/search.

Some keywords to use: evidence based medicine AND

teaching

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