Mastering critical analysis in evidence-based healthcare

This course provides a comprehensive foundation in evidence-based medicine, equipping you with the critical skills needed to evaluate, interpret, and apply healthcare research effectively. You will learn to use clinical databases and find relevant research to inform development of rigorous healthcare research protocols. A key component of the course focuses on mastering efficient techniques for searching, assessing, and synthesizing information from medical databases and literature. You will gain the ability to critically appraise research articles, ensuring access to high-quality, relevant evidence. You'll begin in Module 1 learning about fundamental principles of evidence-based medicine, and the hierarchy of scientific evidence. You will then explore each type of studies ranging from Systematic Review & Meta-analysis to case reports. Throughout Module 2, you'll learn techniques for searching medical databases and relevant tools such as Mendeley and Zotero. In Module 3, you’ll focus on using the structured search of medical databases to form robust research protocols and robust methodological approaches. By the end of this course, you will have a comprehensive understanding of evidence base medicine and how this informs healthcare data science projects. 3b

• Distinguish the different types of evidence using the evidence base.
• Outline the process behind peer-review in health data science.
• Contextualise evidence to ensure appropriate interpretation and application of findings.
• Identify medical databases and articles
• Outline the approach for a focused search strategy
• Use academic tools for reproducible research and referencing: zotero and Mendelay.
• Interpret evidence-based research questions and methodologies.
• Construct a study synopsis with an appropriate statistical analysis plan and methodology.
• Use evidence base to explain the rationale and background of a research topic

• There is no pre-requisites for this course.