Development and Validation of a Test for Competence in Evidence-Based Medicine

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Assessment Tools

Background:

• Medical educators require valid, reliable, and efficient tools to assess evidence-based medicine (EBM) knowledge and skills.
• Existing EBM assessment tools often fail to evaluate skills or are time-consuming to grade.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the Resident EBM Skills Evaluation Tool (RESET), a multiple-choice-based assessment for EBM skills.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involved 304 medicine residents and 33 EBM experts.
• Internal reliability, item difficulty, and item discrimination were analyzed.
• Construct validity was determined by comparing resident and expert scores; content validity was assessed via expert ratings.

Main Results:

• Experts scored significantly higher than residents (35.6 vs. 29.4, P < 0.001).
• Cronbach's alpha was 0.6 (acceptable reliability), with no items showing low item-total correlation.
• Item difficulty ranged from 7% to 86%, and over 50% of experts rated all items as important.

Conclusions:

• The RESET is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing EBM competence.
• The tool is easy to administer and grade.
• It can guide and evaluate EBM educational interventions.