title: Successful teaching in evidence-based medicine.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Several published articles have described the importance of exposing medical trainees to the 'new paradigm' of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Recognizing this, we sought to develop and objectively evaluate a mini-course in EBM for third-year medical students.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a mini-course consisting of four sessions in which students learn to derive sequentially focused questions, search MEDLINE, review articles critically and apply information from the literature to specific clinical questions. To evaluate the teaching intervention, we performed a controlled educational study. Students at the intervention site (n=34) attended the EBM mini-course, while students at the control site (n=26) received more 'traditional' didactic teaching on various clinical topics. Intervention and control students were surveyed immediately before and after the mini-course to assess changes in reading and literature searching skills, as well as a tendency to use the literature to answer clinical questions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Boston University School of Medicine.
  
  
  METHODS
  Third-year medical students.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intervention was associated with significant changes in students' self-assessed skills and attitudes. MEDLINE and critical appraisal skills increased significantly in the intervention group relative to the control group (significance of between group differences: P=0.002 for MEDLINE and P=0.0002 for critical appraisal), as did students' tendency to use MEDLINE and original research articles to solve clinical problems (significance of between group differences: P=0.002 and P=0.0008, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that this brief teaching intervention in EBM has had a positive impact on student skills and attitudes at our medical school. We believe that the key elements of this intervention are (1) active student involvement, (2), clinical relevance of exercises and (3) integrated teaching targeting each of the component skills of EBM.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, The University of Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Ghali
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saitz
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Eskew
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.forename: W Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Hershman
mesh_terms: D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D016239:MEDLINE; D013663:Teaching