Bringing evidence to practice: a team approach to teaching skills required for an informationist role in evidence-based clinical and public health practice.
OBJECTIVE
The objectives were (1) to develop an academic, graduate-level course designed for information professionals seeking to bring evidence to clinical medicine and public health practice and to address, in the course approach, the "real-world" time constraints of these domains and (2) to further specify and realize identified elements of the "informationist" concept.


METHODS
The course took place at the Division of Health Sciences Informatics, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University.


METHODS
A multidisciplinary faculty, selected for their expertise in the course core competencies, and three students, two post-graduate National Library of Medicine (NLM) informationist fellows and one NLM second-year associate, participated in the research.


METHODS
A 1.5-credit, graduate-level course, "Informationist Seminar: Bringing the Evidence to Practice," was offered in October to December 2006. In this team-taught course, a series of lectures by course faculty and panel discussions involving outside experts were combined with in-class discussion, homework exercises, and a major project that involved choosing and answering, in both oral and written form, a real-world question based on a case scenario in clinical or public health practice.


CONCLUSIONS
This course represents an approach that could be replicated in other academic health centers with similar pools of expertise. Ongoing journal clubs that reiterate the question-and-answer process with new questions derived from clinical and public health practice and incorporate peer review and faculty mentoring would reinforce the skills acquired in the seminar.
Oliver
Kathleen Burr
KB
Welch Medical Library and Division of Health Sciences Informatics, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, 1900 East Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. koliver@jhmi.edu
Dalrymple
Prudence
P
Lehmann
Harold P
HP
McClellan
Deborah Ann
DA
Robinson
Karen A
KA
Twose
Claire
C
D015142:Baltimore; D003479:Curriculum; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D024382:Professional Role; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration