Leader: A/Prof Peter Schattner

Offered

Clayton First semester 2008 (Off-campus)
Clayton Second semester 2008 (Off-campus)

Synopsis

This unit will help clarify what EBM is and what it is not, especially in the general practice setting. Written by GPs, its relevance for day to day clinical practice is foremost. Aimed at enabling the student to acquire new skills in finding and applying the latest research evidence. This includes searching evidence databases on the internet, and critically appraising the information retrieved. The course has been written on the assumption that participants have not previously studied research methods or clinical epidemiology.

Objectives

The objectives of this course are to provide students with:

1. an understanding of what evidence based general practice is;
2. skills in implementing EBM through application of its 'five steps', ie; asking a clinical question, searching for the evidence, appraising the nature of that evidence, applying this to an individual patient and evaluating the effectiveness of this process;
3. knowledge of important evidence based resources for use in general practice; and
4. an understanding of how EBM can be linked with continuous quality improvement in general practice.

Assessment

Assignment 1 (30%)
Assignment 2 (30%)
Assignment 3 (40%)