Understanding Evidence-Based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action

This web course has been created by the United States Cochrane Center as part of a project undertaken by Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE), and is designed to help consumer advocates understand the fundamentals of evidence-based healthcare concepts and skills.

You will need to register to participate in this course, but registration is open and free of charge.

The six modules covered are:

  1. INTRO: What is evidence-based health care and why is it important (45 minutes)
  2. ASK. The Importance of research questions in evidence-based health care (40 minutes)
  3. ALIGN. Research design, bias and levels of evidence (1 hour)
  4. ACQUIRE. Searching for health care information; assessing harms and benefits (1 hour 10 minutes)
  5. APRAISE. Behind the numbers: Understanding health care statistics; science, speed and the search for best evidence (1 hour 20 minutes)
  6. APPLY. Critical appraisal: making better decisions for evidence-based health care (1 hour)
After using this resource, you should be able to...
  • Successfully navigate the world of medical information
  • Critically appraise research studies
  • Influence the creation of responsible public policy in health care
  • Help people to make better health care choices based on the best available evidence
Author information: 
Mayer, Musa; Dickersin, Kay
Acknowledgements: 

This web course has been created by the United States Cochrane Center as part of a project undertaken by Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE).

The course was funded in part by a conference grant (#R13 HS13368) from The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K. Dickersin, Principal Investigator); and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.