To show the organization of the course that includes this module, follow this link:  Course organization

Learning outcomes

Knowing the principles of Evidence Based Practice and research methodology.
Knowing the different types of clinical questions and the relative study designs useful in answering these questions.
Being able to conduct research in major biomedical databases in order to find the most appropriate sources to answer their questions.
Knowing how to apply the evidence found in clinical practice, following the evaluation, at least briefly the methodological quality and applicability in their own context.

Program

What is Evidence Based Practice
The 5 Steps of Evidence Based Practice
"What to Look For": formulation of the clinical question, background and foreground questions, the PICO method.
- describe phenomena and causal association between phenomena: cross-sectional studies, case-control studies and longitudinal cohort studies. Difference between statistical and causal association. Hill criteria.
- assess the quality of the evulation instruments: reliability and validity studies. Notes on the psychometric properties of the scales;
- investigate the prognostic factors: longitudinal studies. Outcomes and outcome indicators;
- evaluate the efficacy and the effectiveness: Randomized Controlled Trial studies. Sampling, allocation, randomization.
"How to evaluate the quality": internal validity and external validity. Instruments for internal validity evaluation specific to the type of study. Foundations on inferential statistics.
"How and where to look": databases and search engines for primary studies, systematic reviews, guidelines. Methodology for definition of search strings: Boolean operators, Mesh terms, set limits, sensitivity and specificity of a search.

Examination Methods

Written Test vwith:
- closed multiple choice questions True / False
- analysis of an abstract of an article with questions true / false
- correction of two incorrect search strings