Updating professional development for medical librarians to improve our evidence-based medicine and information literacy instruction.

Joseph Costello

doi:10.5195/jmla.2018.386

Abstract

Medical librarians lack professional development opportunities in the critical appraisal of biomedical evidence. An update to our professional development opportunities could support our efforts to teach critical appraisal of biomedical evidence during evidence-based medicine or information literacy instruction. If we enhance our understanding of latent influences on evidence quality—such as changes to Food and Drug Administration regulations, predatory or deceptive publishing practices, and clinical trial study designs—we can improve our value to medical education and hospital systems.

Highlights

Medical librarians lack professional development opportunities in the critical appraisal of biomedical evidence
I propose that we introduce content into our professional development opportunities about the interplay between such areas as medical education curriculum design, clinical trial study designs, the history of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies, and scholarly publishing
With a better understanding of these influences that bear upon the evidence leading to medical recommendations, we could update our knowledgebase and deliver more interesting, pragmatic evidence-based medicine (EBM) or information literacy instructional sessions

Summary

Introduction

Medical librarians lack professional development opportunities in the critical appraisal of biomedical evidence. I propose that we introduce content into our professional development opportunities about the interplay between such areas as medical education curriculum design, clinical trial study designs, the history of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies (e.g., medical therapy or device approval processes and reversals), and scholarly publishing (e.g., predatory or deceptive publishing practices and conflicts of interest).

Results

Conclusion