Critical Contributions: Developing Research Appraisal Skills at Your Institution

With the reproducibility crisis in biomedical and health sciences and the ever-present necessity of basing medical practice on valid research, medical librarians have an opening to expand their contributions to health care and raise their status by teaching critical appraisal at their institutions. Abraham Wheeler and Amy Blevins aim to get you fired up about teaching in this new area!

You will learn why critical appraisal is an emerging need in health sciences programs, how librarians can fill a gap in critical appraisal expertise, and how you can increase your involvement in the evidence-based medicine (EBM) curriculum at your institution. You will understand the essence of critical appraisal and its place in the cycle of EBM and learn steps that you can take to develop and improve your critical appraisal skills. #MLACritical

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• identify strategies to increase involvement in their institutions’ curricula
• explain the value of librarians having the skills to practice and teach critical appraisal
• describe ways to improve knowledge of critical appraisal concepts
• describe basic critical appraisal competencies and how to build skills in this area

Audience

Any health sciences librarian who wishes to become more involved and engaged in their institution’s EBM curriculum. No previous knowledge or skills required.

Presenters

Abraham Wheeler, AHIP, designs and teaches the EBM curriculum thread content at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He has built a four-year medical school curriculum that integrates EBM, biostatistics, research methods, and journal clubs. He also serves as a peer reviewer for Osteopathic Family Physician.

Amy Blevins is the associate director for public services at the Ruth Lilly Medical Library, Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM)−Indianapolis. She is also the School of Medicine thread director for EBM and oversees a team of librarians teaching EBM and critical appraisal to medical students at IUSM. She has worked on fourteen published systematic reviews and coedited Curriculum-Based Library Instruction: From Cultivating Faculty Relationships to Assessment.

Registration Information

• Length: 1.5 hour recorded webinar
• Technical information: After you have registered, go to My Learning in MEDLIB-ED to access the live webinar, resources, evaluation, and certificate.
• Register, participate, and earn 1.5 MLA continuing education (CE) contact hours and 1.5 Illinois CNE contact hours.