Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
EVIDENCE-BASED EMERGENCY MEDICINE INTEREST GROUP
Statement of Objectives for 2000-2001

At the Annual Meeting of the Evidence-Based Medicine Interest Group (EBM IG), the following major objectives were developed for the coming academic year.

• To draft an outline of needs and guidelines for faculty development required for emergency medicine programs to incorporate the teaching of evidence-based medicine skills and principles into their curricula.
  
  This project will take advantage of the survey of EM Program Directors regarding EBM teaching in their programs now underway under the auspices of the EBM IG. Using the survey, as well as other information, programs that have explored approaches to developing EBM over several years of sustained effort will be identified and their experiences incorporated into the faculty development summary. A didactic program related to this objective will be submitted by the EBM IG and will be developed by a sub-committee under direction of Steve Hayden.
  
  
• To initiate the development of a proposed curriculum plan for EBM within EM programs.
  
  This effort will constitute an extension of the faculty development needs assessment outlined above but will take a longer time to accomplish. It will require the development of proposals for evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the EBM curricula within EM programs.
  
  
• To undertake a systematic exploration of possible modalities for training of EM faculty in EBM.
  
  Several possible modalities were discussed at the Annual Meeting, including workshops, on-line tools, video conferences and mobile instructional teams. As with item 2), the faculty development needs assessment must be developed before cogent decisions can be made regarding the appropriate modalities. No commitment was been made regarding the role of the EBM IG itself in developing training packages in the above categories.
  
  
  
• To develop specific educational resource initiatives relevant to EBM faculty development and curricular designs.
  
  Several projects being led by members of the EBM IG are directed at developing resources and innovative concepts potentially useful to EBM teachers within EM programs. They include:
  
  - use of information from the JAMA Rational Clinical Exam series to teach the relevance of EBM concepts and skills to emergency care and decision making
  - a structured survey of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to identify reviews of direct practical relevance to emergency medicine
  - an online database of systematic reviews formatted for ease of practical access and use in EM practice
  

Peter Wyer MD
Chair
6/7/00