EBP1000 - Systematic review evidence for treatment interventions

Leader: Dr Marie Misso

Offered

Clayton First semester 2007 (Off-campus)
Clayton Second semester 2007 (Off-campus)
Clayton Summer semester A 2007 (Off-campus)

Synopsis

Traditionally, clinicians have favoured past experience, prevailing practice, professional training and peer opinion to guide decisions about patient care. It is now well accepted that these sources of information are much less reliable than external evidence from properly designed studies.
Therefore, clinicians need to learn new skills to keep up with the rapidly evolving medical landscape.

Objectives

On completion of this unit graduates will have developed the ability to:

1. Understand the need for, and principles of, systematic reviews of treatment interventions;
2. Define clinical questions appropriate for addressing with a systematic review of treatment interventions;
3. Apply skills in searching the scientific literature to identify relevant randomised controlled trials;
4. Formulate appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting studies in systematic reviews of treatment interventions;
5. Describe the factors likely to bias the results of research studies and critically appraise the quality of randomised controlled trials;
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the statistical methods used to summarise and combine the results of randomised controlled trials; and
7. Demonstrate competence in interpreting systematic reviews of the evidence for treatment interventions.

Assessment

Assignment 1 - (500 wds) Formulate a question for systematic review 10%
Assignment 2 - (1000 wds) Develop a search strategy 20%
Assignment 3 - (1000 wds) Define inclusion and exclusion criteria 10%
Assignment 4 - (500 wds) Design a data extraction form 10%
Assignment 5 - (2000 wds) Appraise the quality of studies 25%
Assignment 6 (1500 wds) Develop a plan for data analysis 25%.

Prerequisites

EBP1002 Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice