Study Programmes 2015-2016
APPR0333-1  
Information search in a factual medicine perspective
Duration :
15h Th, 15h Pr
Number of credits :
Bachelor in medicine2
Bachelor in medicine2
Lecturer :
Françoise Pasleau
Language(s) of instruction :
French language
Organisation and examination :
Teaching in the second semester
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Course contents :
The main challenge faced by all health professionals is to manage the overabundance of information, in order to keep their knowledge up to date and evolve in their everyday practice. But where can relevant information be found? What should they read, and what should they believe? To a lesser extent, students are faced with the same challenge, as they are required to solve problems and write assignments that meet the standards of scientific publication.  The course's goal is to present the foundations of evidence-based medicine. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) structures medical analysis through three perspectives: the practician's clinical experience, the best data obtained from research, and the patients' expectations.  The course focuses on the methods used to research, identify and evaluate the most reliable clinical studies (based on evidence), which may guide the diagnosis, the prognosis, or the choice of a treatment in a given context.  It is divided into three parts:  1. The analysis of a situation and the formulation of a structured question that will serve as a starting point for a systematic exploration of the medical literature; 2. The presentation of the principles of scientific communication, along with an inventory of the various sources of medical information and a comparison of features offered by major specialised search engines; 3. The acquisition of critical reading habits.  This course's particularity is that its main goal is to help students acquire know-how. There are no theoretical contents that must be memorised. This is why practical assignments are interwoven with theoretical lectures.
Learning outcomes of the course :
After receiving training on the methods of evidence-based medicine, students should be able to work more autonomously, apply critical thinking skills, master the use of various information resources, and understand and follow the rules of scientific communication.  In concrete terms, they should be able to: 1. Recognise a need for information; 2. Formulate it using a specific question; 3. Choose the types of documents and resources that will have to be consulted; 4. Communicate efficiently with specialised search engines; 5. Adapt their research strategies to the goals pursued; 6. Select studies based on their relevance and level of evidence; 7. Practice targeted, quick and efficient reading, relying on the standard structure of scientific articles; 8. Offer a critical perspective of randomised clinical trials (RCT) and secondary literature (systematic reviews, meta-analyses); 9. Evaluate the scale and accuracy of a given result; 10. Interpret elementary notions of biostatistics; 11. Structure a scientific document in accordance with the applicable standards.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
As medical literature is published in English, students absolutely must be competent in this language, at the very least in terms of reading skills. Failing this, a dictionary and a little goodwill should be enough. Learning will be much easier if students have access to a computer, know the basics of how to use it, and can access and use online resources. Curiosity and imagination are also valued qualities, as they encourage students to learn and experiment.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
As this course is intended to help students acquire know-how, it offers many practical activities that follow a predetermined sequence and call upon the cognitive and practical skills that students should master.  Lecture classes provide all the explanations and demonstrations that are used to complete individual assignments, which are then reviewed and corrected with the entire class.  Each student is encouraged to build, with each class, a "laboratory book" where they write down their experiences and the corrections of their individual assignments, while also evaluating the quality of their own learning process.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
In-person classes are given throughout the second term (around 10×2 hours: see the final schedule). They consist in theoretical presentations, demonstrations and explanations on how to complete assignments and how to use the tools made available to students. During this time, students are asked to complete short assignments involving researching information using a computer and critical reading. The answers are then provided during the next class. A course accessible online through eCampus offers a collection of all relevant documents: lecture slides, instructions and deadlines, reading criteria, links to recommended community resources and content pages (http://www.ecampus.ulg.ac.be/).  A public website dedicated to evidence-based medicine is also being developed (http://www.ebp.ulg.ac.be/). It is designed as a reference tool that will remain available for all health professionals, even after their studies.
Recommended or required readings :
Course notes and all relevant documents can be found on eCampus (http://www.ecampus.ulg.ac.be/) and on the http://www.ebp.ulg.ac.be/ portal.
Assessment methods and criteria :
The evaluation will deal both with the practical assignments completed during the year (open-book test on eCampus based on the laboratory book) and on a regular exam (multiple choice with estimation of certainty).  The former counts for 20% of the total mark, while the latter counts for 80%.  For students who must sit the exam a second time, only the exam score will be counted.
Work placement(s) :
Organizational remarks :
Contacts :
Students will find all the support they might want at the library of life sciences (BSV): it can be accessed through the escalator on the university hospital's -1 level, next to the polyclinic registration desks. Teachers: Dr Françoise PASLEAU Bibliothèque des Sciences de la Vie, CHU, B-34. Phone: +32 4 366 2180 E-mail : f.pasleau@ulg.ac.be Secretariat: Véronique LIMBOURG, Bibliothèque des Sciences de la Vie, CHU, B-34. Phone: +32 4 366 9031 E-mail : veronique.limbourg@ulg.ac.be For urgent problems or questions calling for a brief answer, students should use the ULg's e-mail service, while taking care to follow the basic rules of professional e-mail etiquette. However, for more in-depth questions that require a certain amount of explanation, it is best to make an appointment with the teacher. Students can also refer to the library desk staff for questions on how to use information retrieval tools.