UEG Evidence Based Medicine Practice Course 2012

Thursday, 11 October 2012 08:39

Dr Shivkumar Budihal
Specialist Registrar Gastroenterology
Northampton General Hospital

I recently attended the Evidence Based Medicine Practice Course in Vienna, Austria on 26-28th April 2012. Organised by United European Gastroenterology, the course focussed on the principles of Evidence Based Medicine and how they could be applied to day to day clinical practice.

The event was held in the Fleming's Hotel, Westbahnhof, Vienna and was for 3 days. Course participants included doctors, senior and junior from European and Mediterranean countries.

After a brief introduction we were allocated into small break out groups. The first day focussed on the meaning of EBM and explored how everyday Clinical Practice is governed by Clinical Questions. Tutors helped us understand the PICO format and described the process of reformulating a question to make them answerable in a scientific way. In the afternoon, an interactive session was dedicated to literature search using various databases including Pubmed and Cochrane.

The second day started off with a quiz to ascertain what we had learnt and understand our learning needs. Then we concentrated predominately on Critical Appraisal. Exercises included designing a study along with critically appraising a Randomised Control Study and a Meta Analysis.

Day 3 included a similar quiz. We had sessions on the art of transfer of Evidence Based Medicine to Clinical Practice. The course ended on a module on various techniques to identify opportunities to teach and use EBM in our professional life.

The attractive feature of the course was its predominantly interactive nature. It included problem based learning formats, small group teaching and didactic lectures. The faculty were both friendly and approachable and there were ample opportunities to ask questions and discuss presented topics.

The course was very well organised and the course facilitators were always happy to help out.

This event proved to be an excellent opportunity to meet fellow doctors and expand professional networks, thereby exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge. The course dinners proved to be ideal occasions to socialise with fellow participants.

All in all this was an excellent course from which I have learnt a lot and have thoroughly enjoyed.