Teaching

The CEHSEU aims to promote the teaching, research and practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and clinical epidemiology through its links with the University of Melbourne Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science Medical Education Unit and its Schools of Medicine and Population Health, and its links with others.

Activities in 2007-2008

• Establishment of an annual Melbourne Health (MH) “Evidence Week”. Along with other clinicians from various disciplines, Peter Greenberg and Caroline Brand assisted the Clinical Librarian (Terry Harrison) and others from the RMH Health Sciences Library to establish an annual “Evidence Week”, to celebrate the uptake of published evidence into clinical practice. In the inaugural week in 2007, presentations of examples highlighting evidence translation, a ‘hypothetical’ and teaching sessions were conducted.
• Establishment of a multidisciplinary Evidence Based Practice (EBP) group, to cooperatively plan EBP teaching at MH. The group, including representatives from pharmacy, nursing, allied health and medicine (Peter Greenberg) met with the Clinical Librarian each 3-4 months to share and plan EBP teaching and uptake across professional disciplines.
• Establishment of the “Evidence Direct” website. Peter Greenberg made some contributions to the content of the Clinical Librarian’s novel award-winning internet website, designed to provide “one stop shopping” for users and teachers of EBM in Melbourne Health and elsewhere.
• Planning to establish an Australian EBM centre. Peter Greenberg collaborated with the Clinical Librarian, the Chair of the RMH Health Sciences Library Committee and with A/Professor Russell Gruen to develop an Australian Centre for EBP.
• Teaching EBM principles to MH consumers through the MH Community Advisory Committee (CAC). Peter Greenberg met with Terry Harrison (Clinical Librarian), Janet Wale (Cochrane Consumer Network), Christine Walker (Chronic Illness Alliance) and Frank Fisher (Consumer’s Health Forum) and relevant clinicians to develop this program, which was endorsed by the MH CAC.
• EBM teaching. Peter Greenberg contributed to EBM teaching with: University of Melbourne Semester 2, 3, 9 and 12 medical students; MH interns, hospital medical officers, trainees, other postgraduates and allied health clinicians; the Royal Australasian College of Physicians; the Internal Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand and with speech therapists at Austin Health.
• Preparation for RMH International Visitor 2009. Caroline Brand, Peter Greenberg and others commenced planning for the visit of A/Professor Sharon Straus to RMH in 2009.

Activities in 2005-2006

Over the last three years, the CEHSEU has worked collaboratively with the Department of Surgery to support their Advanced Medical Science (AMS) program. These undergraduate medical students undertake a one year research project. Adrian Lowe has been providing a series of presentations and exercises on research methods and statistical analysis for a group of 15 students. The collaboration has proved highly productive with all students submitting abstracts to the RMH research week, and some students presenting their results at both national and international scientific conferences. A number of students have successfully submitted articles to peer reviewed journals.

• Teaching undergraduates.  Adrian Lowe, Lachlan McGregor, Anastasia Hutchison, Caroline Brand, Vijaya Sundararajan and Peter Greenberg contributed to Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Teaching for University of Melbourne Semester 2,3 and 8/9 medical students
• Exploring linkages with nurses, physiotherapists and other allied health clinicians at MH regarding EBP Teaching and Practice (Anastasia Hutchinson and Peter Greenberg).
• Piloting a series of interactive tutorials on EBP for  Melbourne Health nurses (Anastasia Hutchinson and Peter Greenberg).
• Lectures and workshops on EBP to general practitioners, consultant physicians and trainees, including interactive general practitioner workshops sponsored by the National Prescribing Service (Peter Greenberg).
• Assisting general medical registrars to prepare and present Critically Appraised Topics (CATs) (Peter Greenberg).
• Maintaining educational objectives in the development of Melbourne Health clinical practice guidelines (Caroline Brand, Peter Greenberg).
• Facilitating at the 12th Oxford (UK) Workshop in Evidence-Based HealthCare (Peter Greenberg).
• Presentations on "Making decision about tests and treatments: Principles for better communication between healthcare consumers and healthcare professionals" (NHMRC 2006) (Peter Greenberg).
• Updated EBP online resources. Resources for clinical students, interns and postgraduate clinicians with links to relevant EBP sites can be accessed from Melbourne Health Intranet site.  

Activities in 2003-2004

• Teaching undergraduates. Catherine Jones, Caroline Brand and Peter Greenberg have contributed to Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Teaching for Semester 8/9 medical students and Division 2 nurses. 
• Published the Clinicians Workbook 2003/2004 on the Melbourne Health Intranet (click on Services, then General Medicine for link; also accessible from Northern and Western Health intranet)
• Explored linkages with physiotherapists and allied health clinicians at MH regarding EBP Teaching and practice (Catherine Jones)
• Lectured on EBP to general practitioners and physicians (Peter Greenberg)
• Developed an interactive computer program for critical appraisal (Stefan Kane)
• Updated EBP resources on the Department of General Medicine webpages. Resources for clinical students, interns and postgraduate clinicians with links to relevant EBP sites can be accessed by clicking here: Basics of Evidence Based Practice 
• Facilitating a 2-day workshop in Colombo in March 2004 (Nilangi Dewapura, Jeremy Anderson, Don Campbell and Peter Greenberg). This was held just prior to the meeting of the Sri Lanka Medical Association. The program for the 60 medical graduate attendees included 'asking questions', 'searching' and 'critical appraisal'. The lecture on 'searching' can be accessed through the RMH Library
• Facilitated a ' Teaching Evidence Based Practice' workshop held in the School of Population Health, University of Melbourne Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences on 18 and 19 November 2004 (Jeremy Anderson, Don Campbell and Peter Greenberg).  The plan was to increase the capacity of Teaching EBP to undergraduate clinical students, interns, trainees and practising clinicians in Victoria. Further details from Peter Greenberg

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EBP Teaching Workshop - 18 and 19 November 2004

A workshop on ' Teaching Evidence Based Practice' (EBP) was held at the School of Population, University of Melbourne on 18-19 November 2004. The objective was to increase the capacity for Teaching EBP in Victoria at undergraduate, training and continuing educational levels.

The workshop was funded by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Victorian Quality Council, Monash University and the University of Melbourne. It was convened by Don Campbell, inaugural Director of the Melbourne Health Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Evaluation Unit (CEHEU), Jeremy Anderson and Peter Greenberg.

Enthusiastic support came from colleagues within the Monash Institute Health Services Research, the University of Melbourne School of Population Health, the CEHEU and Department of General Medicine at Melbourne Health, and by clinicians and librarians across Melbourne Teaching hospitals.

There were 87 registrants including 29 consultant physicians, 15 nurses and five physiotherapists as well as occupational therapists, speech pathologists, general practitioners, pharmacists and radiation therapists.

The 35 tutors included local teachers and interstate and international experts in EBP Teaching.

A workbook was prepared for registrants. This has chapters relevant to EBP teaching.

The workshop program, workbook, materials for participants and presentations is available on the link below:
EBP_Workshop_Workbook.pdf (2410KB)