Prospective, controlled assessment of the impact of formal evidence-based medicine teaching workshop on ability to appraise the medical literature.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The ability to critically appraise the calibre of studies in medical literature is increasingly important for medical professionals. AIM: This prospective controlled study evaluated the impact of a 6-h Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) Workshop on the critical appraisal skills of medical trainees. METHODS: Individuals attended three 2-h workshops over a 3-week period, incorporating didactic lectures in statistics, clinical trial design, appraising research papers and practical examples. Appraisal skills were assessed pre- and post-training based on grading the quality of randomised control studies (level 1 evidence), cohort studies (level 2 evidence) and case-control studies (level 3 evidence) [From Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine Levels of Evidence (2001), http//www.cebm.net/critical_appraisal.asp ]. RESULTS: Overall grading improved from 39% (pre-course) to 74% (post-course), P = 0.002, with grading of levels 1, 2 and 3 studies improving from 42 to 75%, 53 to 61% and 21 to 84%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a 6-h formal EBM workshop is effective in enhancing the critical appraisal skills of medical trainees.