The Royal College of  Physicians and Surgeons of Canada based its handbook for conducting research in medicine on a course developed by faculty members in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has published a handbook for conducting research in medicine modelled after a syllabus developed by faculty in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

“The Royal College was looking for materials on the research process that it could incorporate into its medical education framework. Nobody had quite done it like we did in our course where we outline the A-to-Z of research, and that model was attractive to the College,” says Robert Reid, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Dr. Reid and his colleagues, Dean VanVught and Phil Hahn, developed “An Introduction to Research” course in the early 1990s to ensure that residents in obstetrics and gynaecology were familiar with research methodologies and evaluation criteria. They wanted to improve residents’ ability to evaluate medical literature, distinguish between strong and weak evidence, and make more judicious therapy recommendations to individual patients.

The syllabus evolved into annual regional courses across Canada delivered by the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and later incorporated into the Association’s annual national meeting.

“We had developed and tested an introductory research course for Ob/Gyn residents over the past 20 years and the Royal College felt the course design and syllabus was a good fit for the materials they wanted to achieve their mandate of educating health care trainees as scholars accomplished in critical appraisal and research methodology,” says Dr. Reid.

The Royal College’s handbook, The Research Guide: A Primer for Residents, Other Health Care Trainees, and Practitioners, is available to all members the Royal College at a subsidized price.