Since I am in a continuing education kind of mood, here is another class for all of you who are interested in EBM.

EBM for librarians: Appraising the evidence for validity.
2-Day Class:
DATES: October 13 & 14, 2005
LOCATION: Library of the Health Sciences (Room 303),University of Illinois at Chicago, 1750 W. Polk (m/c 763),Chicago, IL 60612
COST: $225 includes textbook and materials.
CE HOURS: The two-day course has been previously approved for 14 MLA CEhours. An application has been submitted for renewal for 14 MLA CE hours.

Critically appraising the medical literature for validity: Diagnosis and Therapy
Taught by Jordan Hupert, MD; Leo Niederman, MD; Alan Schwartz, Ph.D. and Sandra De Groote, MLIS; Richard McGowan, MLIS; Kristina Howard

"An in-depth exploration of the third step of the EBM process, critically appraising the medical literature for validity will be presented at this workshop. Participants will examine therapy and diagnosis articles. This 2-day class is intended for health sciences librarians who wish to learn the evidence based medicine process of critically appraising articles for validity and analysis of results. This class will provide a more in-depth understanding of the statistical concepts used in the medical literature. This will be done in the context of analyzing journal articles and answering actual clinical questions with an emphasis on therapy and diagnosis during the workshop. A focus will be placed on the epidemiological concepts fundamental to understanding the clinical literature. These will include such terms as number needed to treat, absolute risk reduction, likelihood ratio, confidence interval and intention to treat.

By the end of the class participants should be able to:

• Apply appropriate criteria in appraising an article for validity and evidence
• Evaluate the quality of statistical methodology in the clinical literature
• Produce a formal EBM analysis using the CAT (Critically Appraised Topic)
• Lead a group through the process of appraising a diagnostic or therapy article

More information may be found at:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsc/temp/ebm/ebmclass.shtml