Effectiveness of teaching evidence-based medicine to undergraduate medical students: A BEME systematic review

Abstract

Our findings indicated that some EBM teaching strategies have the potential to improve knowledge, attitudes and skills in undergraduate medical students, but the evidenced base does not demonstrate superiority of one method. There is no evidence demonstrating transfer to clinical practice.

Enhancing the impact of BEME systematic reviews on educational practice

“…Clearly, imparting the skills to achieve this to the next generation of medical educators is vital in achieving this goal, hence our intense interest in Ahmadi et al (2015) timely BEME review. The goals of this review are appropriate and consistent with contemporaneous systematic reviews in the field, focussing on the effectiveness of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) teaching.…”

“…The team exemplify how far the BEME collaboration has supported the evolution of health education evidence synthesis, particularly in the area of methodology. Ahmadi et al (2015) use robust, transparent methods that demonstrate to the reader that reviewer bias has been minimised and that the evidence base presented is reliable and complete. This is at the heart of the BEME vision to systematically review evidence in a manner that supports the shift to evidence-based medical education.…”

Evidence-based medicine skills that last: A transferable model utilizing integration, spaced learning, and repetition with a single study design among second-year medical students

“…Indeed, a handful of descriptions of longitudinal curricula have emerged in recent years and include reports of both clinical and preclinical efforts. The majority however do not include learning data at all, or provide only limited data on short-term knowledge gains rather than longer-term acquisition of knowledge or skills (Rao and Kanter, 2010;Mojica, 2013;Chitkara et al, 2014;Elçin et al, 2014;Ahmadi et al, 2015).…”

Don’t just blame the evidence: considering the role of medical education in the poor uptake of evidence-based medicine in clinical practice

“…In medical schools, this reactive approach to EBM has resulted in the creation of specific ‘EBM curriculum’, either as stand-alone courses or integrated with clinical care, that have focused on the steps of critical appraisal 3. Once ‘trained’, learners have been expected to apply these EBM competencies to address point-of-care questions.…”