Qatar University Health (QU-Health) hosted the third part of a six-part interactive webinar series that aims to enhance skills in designing and conducting research.
The sessions have been specifically developed to address the learning gaps reported by healthcare workers in Qatar and delivered in an interactive way by a team of experienced health researchers from QU-Health and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
The interactive webinar series welcomed participants from all over the world via the QU-Health YouTube channel live stream to learn more about the appraisal and design of quantitative studies. Dr Hazem Elewa, associate professor and head of Clinical Education and Training, QU-Health, led the session.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become essential that healthcare workers stay up-to-date with the latest reported evidence. It is important that they understand and are able to appraise the published literature and identify areas they can use to enhance their own practice,” he said.
Presenter Dr Daniel Rainkie, Clinical Lecturer, College of Pharmacy, QU-Health, observed that healthcare professionals come to these sessions unaware of their skills gaps in evaluating the medical literature. “Our goal is to demonstrate a systematic approach that participants can adopt to ensure that they are able to better interpret and apply what they read to benefit their patients.”
Participants were also shown how to evaluate the quality of published studies using a systematic critical appraisal process.
This Continuing Professional Development (CPD) series is being delivered at a highly critical time where there has been a marked increase in the number of publications in the medical literature reporting on research related to Covid-19.
Dr Zachariah Nazar, QU-Health CPD co-ordinator said “there is a huge creative energy coming from all fields for reporting on Covid-19; things are happening very fast and maybe not with the same scrutiny we’re used to in science and therefore healthcare professionals should equip themselves with the necessary knowledge to scrutinise the medical literature.”
Dr Kazeem Yusuff, associate professor, College of Pharmacy, QU-Health, a presenter in the CPD session, said “these educational series provide an opportunity for the development of working relationships between key institutes in Qatar and have the potential to provide a platform for an effective continued collaboration in many areas related to health research and education”.