: The Rocky Mountain Evidence-Based Health Care Workshop (EBHC) has been presented each summer since 1999. In addition to its stated objectives of improving practice and outcomes of care by teaching individual participants the basics of evidence-based practice, the workshop also strives to disseminate information by working with health care systems and diverse professional audiences to facilitate adoption of evidence-based practice on a system-wide basis (translational research). This application seeks support in each year for six groups of clinicians including up to three coming from health care systems or professional organizations. Additional funding sources for other non-clinical constituencies will be sought (policy makers, journalists and consumer advocates). The workshop format is structured around plenary sessions, small group sessions and individual study time. Small group topics are tailored to the interests of the participants to optimize the opportunities to put new skills into immediate practice. The five-day workshop comprised of 54 clinically-focused participants uses adult learning modalities and a problem-based format, with a 3-to-1 participant-to-tutor ratio. Principal tutors are nationally and internationally recognized EBHC experts with long associations with McMaster University, the Cochrane Collaboration, and AHRQ Evidence-based Practice Centers. The tutors who have, in the past, committed to this workshop include: Lisa Bero, Kay Dickersin, Robert Fletcher, Suzanne Fletcher, Curt Furberg, Martha Gerrity, Andy Oxman, Scott Richardson, and Peter Tugwell. Local faculty and contingent librarians comprise the balance of the faculty. Funding for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 workshops will provide the opportunity to address the challenges of putting EBHC knowledge into daily practice. The workshop directors remain committed to further development and maintenance of the web-based, post-workshop support activities and extensive dissemination efforts that bring the principal lessons and resources of evidence-based care to diverse audiences beyond the workshop.
The Evidence-Based Health Care Workshop seeks to impact the practice and decision making of healthcare providers, at the individual and system level, by teaching strategies for asking questions, accessing and appraising research literature for validity and applicability, and applying evidence in patient care. Such use of the evidence will create better informed practitioners and consumers ultimately leading to higher standards and quality of care.
