Teaching information mastery: creating informed consumers of medical information

The concepts of evidence-based medicine are permeating all specialties, including family practice. This article describes a curriculum to teach residents the principles and practices of information mastery, a derivation of evidence-based medicine that is more relevant to family physicians.

The curriculum is a 2-year longitudinal experience consisting mainly of didactic presentations and demonstrations in the first year followed by small-group sessions in the second year. Residents are taught the concepts of the previously described approach of information mastery and the application of these concepts to the variety of information resources available to them. Specifically, residents are taught how to find, evaluate, and apply information available from original research literature, review articles, meta-analyses, translation (controlled-circulation) journals, continuing education lectures, experts and colleagues, pharmaceutical representatives, and clinical experience.

Using a before-after design at two institutions, the curriculum improved residents' attitudes, confidence regarding the medical literature, their perceptions of their ability to evaluate the published literature, and their use of information sources.

Offering a structured curriculum to family practice residents creates dynamic, confident, and independent clinicians skilled in the art of information mastery.