Critical Reading of the Medical Literature

This course is organized by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and it is open to URV students and students from the different branches of Health Sciences, within Aurora.

How to search, select, critically appraise and interpret scientific evidence is an essential skill for health professionals and scientists in the making of evidence based decisions and diagnositcs in their day to day research and clinical activities. The NCBI/NLM/NIH PubMed database is a widely available source of peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature.

The weekly course (3 ECTS subject) runs from late February to mid-May and is based mainly on team work to develop skills in communication, critical thinking and reporting. The final 2 sessions consist of a debate and a simulated conference setting in which students give oral presentations and also participate in the debate / microphone sessions for questions and answers.

Students will learn to dissect scientific papers from the title through to the references, how the peer review process works and how to identify flaws and strong points in the published literature. They will learn who is behind the peer review process and broadly what steps/ hurdles are involved.

They will practice working to deadlines in teams from different disciplines and countries. They will develop their skills in communicating, interacting, decision making, reporting. They will participate in class discussions and debates and presentations and as a team will submit a short written report, a press release and a headline regarding their assigned topic. Thus they will simulate reporting to a scientific audience as well as preparing a take home message for a non-specialised audience or the press. All of these skills are necessary for their future as researchers or clinicians.

We expect up to 40 students in total. URV students are already registered. We can take another 15 students from Aurora partners.

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