Evidence-based Health Care Topics Including Evidence-based Medicing Training we offer outstanding training through our popular medical literature evaluation training (See also Sample Program — Critical Appraisal Demystified: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Patients)

• Searching simplified
• Quality medical information resources and how to work with them
• Critical appraisal training and how to apply findings from valid and clinical useful research studies
• Advanced topics in EBM: Examples...
  • Data analysis for users
  • Evaluating diagnostic tests and screening
  • Evidence synthesis
  • Creating clinical recommendations
  • Special considerations in oncology research
• Specialized training for —
  • Researchers
  • Academicians
  • Content developers
  • Committee staffers

“Best one-day educational program I’ve experienced in 25 years!”
Intermountain Health Care attendee
Salt Lake City UT

“…One of the best classes I have ever attended. Thank you for bringing back some common sense. Thanks so much!”
Pacificare attendee
Cypress CA

"Great program. One of the best I’ve ever attended."
Omnicare attendee
Orlando FL

Sample Program — Critical Appraisal Demystified: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Your Patients

There can be a lifetime's worth of difference between “knowing the evidence” and knowing what evidence is valid & clinically useful. Before many Delfini training programs, a shocking 70 percent of clinical pharmacists fail a simple pre-test covering three questions basic to understanding how to read a study article. Not after attending this program. This program covers the essentials of performing critical appraisal of therapeutic interventions in a comprehensive way with a strong focus on identifying studies at high risk of bias using a practical, simplified approach and presented in an entertaining fashion. Presenters have a world-wide reputation for rigor in evaluating studies and a highly engaging teaching style that keeps this material fresh and anything but boring or too complex. .

• Evidence-based medicine and its import explained
• The impact of bias on study results
• Issues with study design
• Validity
  • Bias
  • Confounding
  • Chance effects
  • Causality
• Clinical usefulness
  • Size of results
  • Meaningful clinical benefit
  • Other considerations
• Evidence grading
• Tools & resources

Download the comprehensive critical appraisal program outline

From program evaluations — here's what attendees have to say...
"...thanks for presenting this valuable information in a fun and memorable way..."

"...I thought the subject was going to be boring and not much use...I was very wrong...I cannot thank you and Sheri enough."

"I know a couple hundred people...who have got to hear your message!"

Clinical Quality Improvement Topics for Health Care Quality Training (See also Sample Program — The “How To”s of Conducting and/or Participating in Efficient, Effective Evidence-based Clinical Quality Improvement Projects: How to Make Your Project Doable & Successful)

• Clinical quality improvement methods
• Creating clinical recommendations
• Practice guidelines —
  • Creating
  • Evaluating
• Evidence & judgment: how to apply both to achieve value
• Impact change and economic projections
• Communication aids
• Implementation
• Measurement
• Quality indicators and performance measures

"...I was impressed not only with the conference content, but also the caliber of the presenters, conference location, organization and arrangements. It was first class! I do not recall attending a meeting where everyone was present 100% of the time, both physically and mentally....Thank you again for including me in the invitations to this superior conference." Anne L. Whitlock, RN, BSN, Guidelines Development Coordinator, KP Atlanta GA

• Clinical quality improvement methods: The 10 Phases
• Selecting good projects
• Creating great teams
• Efficiencies for great operations, doability and success
• Creating clinical recommendations
• Clinical practice guidelines —
  • Creating
  • Evaluating
• Evidence & judgment: how to apply both to achieve value
• Impact change and economic projections
• Communication aids: information aids, decision support, action aids
• Implementation
• Measurement
• Quality indicators and performance measures

From medicalleaders.org
ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS FOR AN EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDELINE AND CLINICAL QUALITY
IMPROVEMENT PROJECT:
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii (KPHI): Prevention of Venous
Thromboemobolism (VTE) in Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement
Conversation with Karen Ching MD, EBM Director & Nephrologist

Delfini: This was such a successful project. What made things work?

Karen: This was an important project, and it was successful because each of the members of the workgroup was engaged in the process and participated fully. It was also helpful to have group leaders representing … differing viewpoints. It was also successful because we were able to overcome the barriers … with the right support. It also can be intimidating to approach a vast body of medical literature, especially one that is controversial. Having facilitators like you, Mike and Sheri, really made the difference; you did an incredible amount of work behind the scenes. You guided the group through the process and made the work of EBM easy and fun.

Health Care Organizations & Committees

Creating an Evidence- and Value-based Organization

• EBM Organizational Structures —
  • Quality Council
  • Value Council
  • Pharmacy & Therapeutics
  • Technology Assessment
  • Guideline Teams and EBM Work Groups
  • Journal Clubs
• Working with groups

"It has been six months since the Delfini Group customized an evidence-based training program to help us change our processes for drug reviews. We have already experienced real success which we expect to be sustainable and which will improve the care we provide to our patients and our ability to use our resources optimally. The concepts and skills learned in the training - along with the tools and process steps - were invaluable to us and have helped us transform our system. Highly recommended!" David Holloway, MD, Senior Vice President & Chief Quality Officer, Parkview Health, Fort Wayne IN

We can help your organization become an Evidence-based Organization

Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committees and Formulary Management

Help for committee structure and process steps, materials and outputs, staff and committee member skills

• Introduction to the formulary system
• Qualities of an efficient & effective formulary system
• Pitfalls P & T Committees and staffers commonly fall into and how to avoid them
• How to conduct scientific, clinical and economic drug reviews
• How to effectively use various resources available to ensure quality of the information used for formulary decisions and for creating efficiency
• Work processes for content developers
• Tips for organizing staffing for committee support work
• P & T Committee decision criteria
• Evidence versus judgment: how to apply both correctly in achieving value
• Class effect, generic and therapeutic substitutions
• Tips for smooth committee operations and deliberations
• Tools including Drug Review Template, NNT Drug Comparison Calculators and other tools for simplified and practical economic analyses

Read more on help for pharmacy & therapeutics committee leaders, members and staffers.

Medical Technology Assessment

Help for committee structure and process steps, committee materials and outputs, staff and committee member skills.

• Introduction to medical technology assessment
• Qualities of an efficient & effective medical technology assessment system
• Pitfalls committees and staffers commonly fall into and how to avoid them
• How to conduct scientific, clinical and economic medical technology reviews
• How to effectively use various resources available to ensure quality of the information used for decisions and for creating efficiency
• Work processes for content developers
• Tips for organizing staffing for committee support work
• Committee decision criteria
• Evidence versus judgment: how to apply both correctly in achieving value
• Tips for smooth committee operations and deliberations
• Tools including Intervention Review Template (see , NNT Drug Comparison Calculators and other tools for simplified and practical economic analyses

"I believe the evidence-based approach used by Delfini is the right way to approach inappropriate variation in healthcare. I fully support Delfini’s step-wise approach to assessing medical technologies....One of the biggest problems in healthcare is that new diagnostic and therapeutic interventions are instituted without the support of good science....I can highly recommend the Delfini faculty..." Doug Dammrose, MD
Senior Vice President & Medical Director of Blue Cross of Idaho

Health Care Economics

• Cost analysis
• Cost-effectiveness analysis
• Pharmacoeconomics
• Decision analysis

Patient-centered Strategies

• Medical decision-making
• Clinician / patient communications
• Conveying information to patients
• Patient education
• Patient adherence 
• Special communication topics and the evidence: examples —
  Communicating risk
  Difficult patient encounters
  Elder care
  Complementary & alternative medicine

Delfini scores for communications training — 5.0 out of 5.0 possible score.

Communication & Information Packaging Strategies

See Patient-centered Strategies immediately above and —

• Interprofessional communications
• Packaging information
• Visual displays of information

Special Clinical Topics

Trustable, usable evidence-based guidance for clinicians developed by one of the world’s leading experts in guideline development: valid, comprehensible, useful and easy to apply.

• Evaluation of sources for information
• Evidence reviews and analyses
• Evidence syntheses
• Clinical recommendation development
• Content development
• Information packaging — information, decision and action aids
• Electronic solutions

We know how to create information that is valid, comprehensible, useful and gets used.