Syllabus
evidence based medicine principles; classification of information sources; clinical trials designs (primary sources: randomized controlled clinical trial, cohort trial, case-control trial, cases, case-series; secondary sources: systematic reviews and meta-analysis); measures of effect size (odds ratio- OR; relative risk ? RR; relative risk increase RRI, relative risk reduction ? RRR; absolute risk AR; absolute risk increase ARI, absolute risk reduction ? ARR; number needed to treat/to harm- NNT/NNH; confidence interval; interpretation of the study results); databases (bibliographic ? MEDLINE/PubMED; EMBASE; full-text- EBSCO, PROQUEST 5000; factographic ? Micromedex Health Care Series), quality of the information on the internet; drug promotion; drug information centres, electronic discussion groups on medicines; ethical issues in the handling of information.
Annotation
students are familiarized with various information on drugs and trained where to find reliable, up-to-date information and to assess the quality and validity of the material so as to provide relevant information to patients about their medication (either on prescription or non-prescription drugs).