Information Mastery and Evidence Based-Medicine

Course Director:  Katharine DeGeorge, MD, MS

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the principles and methods of Information Mastery, a practical approach to “evidence-based medicine”, and offers opportunities to integrate this approach into clinical and instructional processes.

This course is designed to help fellows develop expertise in:

1. Surveillance of primary and secondary literature to identify relevant information
2. Critical appraisal of relevant primary and secondary literature (determining validity and assigning appropriate Levels of Evidence or LOE ratings)
3. Summarization of useful new clinical information in a succinct written format
4. Making appropriate clinical recommendations based on the integration of new information with established clinical practice

Instructional materials include one-on-one curricular development sessions, small group discussions, assigned readings, as well as a series of online seminar sessions, that provide an overview of key concepts. Fellows will get guided, hands-0n experience teaching Information Mastery through their instrumental involvement in the core Information Mastery curriculum taught to family medicine residents during certain didactic-block months as well as weekly practical application sessions with residents and medical students.  Additional teaching opportunities are available including workshops and presentations with medical students or residents in other areas of the medical school.  Fellows will also have the opportunity to develop their clinical writing skills through DynaMed Plus’ weekly peer-reviewed-e-newsletter [EBM Focus] which is a short summary of useful new information distributed to a large worldwide audience of clinicians.  With guidance from Dr. DeGeorge and senior editors from the online clinical resource [DynaMed Plus], fellows are responsible for choosing a recent relevant article, critically appraising the study, and summarizing the key clinical points in a format that is easily  digestible by busy practicing clinicians.