Pediatric Online Evidence-Based Medicine Assignment Is a Novel Effective Enjoyable Undergraduate Medical Teaching Tool

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is delivered through a didactic, blended learning, and mixed models. Students are supposed to construct an answerable question in PICO (patient, intervention, comparison, and outcome) framework, acquire evidence through search of literature, appraise evidence, apply it to the clinical case scenario, and assess the evidence in relation to clinical context. Yet these teaching models have limitations especially those related to group work, for example, handling uncooperative students, students who fail to contribute, students who domineer, students who have personal conflict, their impact upon progress of their groups, and inconsistent individual acquisition of required skills. hD, Nour El Deen alifa, MSc, PhD, hD, and Mohamed Amr N. Lotfi, MSc aimed to assess its effectiveness by prospective follow-up during academic years 2012 to 2013 and 2013 to 2014. The novel web-based online interactive system was tailored to provide sequential single and group assignments for each student. Single assignment addressed a specific case scenario question, while group assignment was teamwork that addressed different questions of same case scenario. Assignment comprised scholar content and skills. We objectively analyzed students’ performance by criterion-based assessment and subjectively by anonymous student questionnaire. A total of 2879 were enrolled in 5th year Pediatrics Course consecutively, of them 2779 (96.5%) logged in and 2554 (88.7%) submitted their work. They were randomly assigned to 292 groups. A total of 2277 (89.15%) achieved 80% of total mark (4/5), of them 717 (28.1%) achieved a full mark. A total of 2178 (85.27%) and 2359 (92.36%) made evidence-based conclusions and recommendations in single and group assignment, respectively (P< 0.001). A total of 1102 (43.1%) answered student questionnaire, of them 898 (81.48%) found e-educational experience satisfactory, 175 (15.88%) disagreed, and 29 (2.6%) could not decide. A total of 964 (87.47%) found single assignment educational, 913 (82.84%) found group assignment educational, and 794 (72.3%) enjoyed it. Web-based online interactive undergraduate EBM assignment was found effective in teaching medical students and assured individual student acquisition of concepts and skills of pediatric EMB. It was effective in mass education, data collection, and storage essential for system and student assessment. (Medicine 94(29):e1178) Abbreviations: EBM = evidence-based medicine, PEBMA = Pediatrics Evidence-Based Medicine Assignment. INTRODUCTION E vidence-based medicine (EBM) is defined as the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The lag between the development of medical sciences and practice spans several years. It was found essential to incorporate EBM in curricula of medical schools, with stressing upon decision analysis. EBM is delivered through a didactic, blended learning, and mixed models. Students are supposed to construct an answerable question in PICO (patient, intervention, comparison, and outcome) framework, acquire evidence through search of literature, appraise evidence, apply it to the clinical case scenario, and assess the evidence in relation to clinical context. ne, Cairo University is challenged by the ents enrolled in its undergraduate years, 8687 undergraduate students across its www.md-journal.com | 1 6 undergraduate years in the academic year 2004 to 2005 and 2010 to 2011, respectively. Pediatrics Evidence-Based Medicine Assignment (PEBMA) was delivered didactically by competent pediatrics staff members trained in EBM teaching in Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University until 2011 to 2012 academic year. Students worked in 10 to 15 student groups, yet group work has its limitations in handling uncooperative students, their impact upon progress of their groups, students who fail to contribute, students who domineer, students who have personal conflict, and inconsistent individual acquisition of required skills. We developed a web-based online system to allow undergraduate medical student individual acquisition of PEBMA skills, allow work in group and overcome limitations of group work. This study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the newly developed online system as an educational tool of EBM skills among 5th year students of Pediatrics Course, Cairo University. MATERIAL AND METHODS Design, Setting, and Participants PEBMA is a part of curriculum of Pediatrics Course delivered in 5th undergraduate year. Shift from PEBMA didactic model to website was approved by Department of Pediatrics Staff Council in July 2012. We followed this educational intervention prospectively in Pediatrics Department, Cairo University during the academic years 2012 to 2013 and 2013 to 2014 to assess effectiveness of PEBMA website as a tool for EBM education for 5th year Pediatrics Course students. Participants of this study were undergraduate medical students of 5th year Pediatrics Course. In a given academic year, students were divided into 2 independent groups to join November or March semesters. Participants of this study were 2897 students. PEBMA spanned 7 weeks.