?Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values.? The mission of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) EBM Task Force is to promote the practice and teaching of EBM by developing, implementing, and evaluating effective EBM resources, educational programs, and disseminating strategies. Because there are few EBM workshops that focus on the needs of practicing clinicians, the SGIM EBM Task Force developed ?EBM for the Practicing Clinician? workshop as its first educational program. The goal of the workshop is to enhance clinicians? abilities to find and use the best available evidence at the point of care. The workshop incorporates educational methods and principles found to be effective in changing clinician behavior. Clinicians who work in rural areas and inner-cities may face unique challenges in attending educational programs and accessing EBM resources. In this proposal, the SGIM EBM Task Force will focus on these clinicians to determine how best to disseminate EBM education to them. The workshops will be co-sponsored by the American College of Physicians- American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP-ASIM) through their Regional Programs. They will be held in conjunction with the Regional meetings in Oregon, Michigan & New York. The specific objectives of this conference proposal are to: 1. Refine, deliver, and evaluate ?EBM for the Practicing Clinician? workshops with 3 target groups of clinicians around the country. 2. Disseminate the results of these workshops; 3. Develop a plan to disseminate the workshops to sites across the United States based on feedback from the target groups; and 4. Use the results of these workshops to assist in the preparation of a randomized trial to determine the impact of the workshop on important clinical outcomes.
