EUebm - Integrating a Europe-wide Harmonised Training and Continuing Medical Education in Evidence-based Medicine (EbM) with Patient Care

Integrative concepts of teaching and learning with close reference to individual work routines are better suited to bring about attitudinal and behavioural modification apart from a gain in knowledge and skills - than traditional educational approaches. All the same, the vast majority of continuing training courses in Evidence-based Medicine takes place during weekend courses or evening classes, outside the work environment. To counteract this deficit a modular curriculum framework for Evidence-based Medicine was developed within the scope of the European research project EUebm which aims to achieve both a harmonisation of EbM education and training in Europe and a better integration of education and training with everyday clinical practice. The modules of this curriculum are intended to seamlessly fit into our day-to-day clinical work for and with patients and thus facilitate close interaction between the actual clinical work and the learning of EbM techniques and their implementation into our own patients care. On the basis of a survey conducted among all the project partners in Austria, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland the demand for training and continuing education in EbM in the individual countries was identified. Taking into account the results of this survey as well as previous work such as, for example, the curriculum of the German Network for Evidence-based Medicine or material provided by the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine in Oxford, an Internet-based teaching and learning module on systematic reviews and meta-analyses was developed and tested in five of the participating countries. The test demonstrated that in this way harmonisation of EbM education and training and a better integration of training with our everyday clinical work becomes feasible.