Prostate cancer advocates need to understand the concepts of Evidence Based Medicine so that they can be part of the dialog as the cancer treatment system evolves.

The web course to train patient advocates on Evidence Based Medicine was developed by advocate, Musa Mayer with epidemiologist Kay Dickersin (Director, US Cochrane Center) is open for registration. While they designed the course for advocates, the course content may be helpful for anyone working in healthcare who has a need to understand research design, bias, levels of evidence, statistics and risk, critical appraisal of the medical literature, and other course content.

The “running time” for the six modules in the course is about six hours, but the course may take somewhat longer, as it is broken into 10-20 minute segments, meant to be taken over several weeks. The course is free, but you will be ask you to fill out a registration form, and help improve the course by evaluating the various modules.

From the website:

Course Objectives:
Our goals in this course are to provide consumer advocates with the tools they need to:

* Successfully navigate the world of medical information,
* Critically appraise research studies,
* Influence the creation of responsible public policy in healthcare, and
* Help the people they serve to make healthcare choices based on the best available evidence.

Course Description:
In these six modules, we will illustrate key concepts with compelling real-world examples, covering the following topics and issues:

* Module 1. INTRO: What is evidence-based healthcare and why is it important?
* Module 2. ASK: The importance of research questions in evidence based healthcare.
* Module 3. ALIGN: Research design, bias and levels of evidence.
* Module 4. ACQUIRE: Searching for healthcare information. Assessing harms and benefits.
* Module 5. APPRAISE: Behind the numbers: Understanding healthcare statistics. Science, speed and the search for best evidence.
* Module 6: APPLY: Critical appraisal and making better decisions for evidence-based healthcare, Determining causality.

To read more about the course, and to register, click here.