Online portal is a one-stop-shop for evidence-based information

The AAOS Evidence-Based Practice Committee launched its latest educational product, the Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Online Portal, on November 21, 2006.

The EBP Online Portal is a new component of Orthopaedic Knowledge Online. The portal will serve as a comprehensive, one-stop-shop for the latest information and educational materials on evidence-based orthopaedic practice.

The portal assembles a number of previously published articles and tools on EBP-related topics and presents them in a manner that reflects the clinical quality improvement cycle—evidence analysis, evidence-based guidelines, performance measures, outcomes, and policy/implementation. In addition to previously published information, new content authored by AAOS fellows will be added on an ongoing basis.

The EBP Online Portal is a “natural extension” of the educational projects the Committee has undertaken in recent years, according to EBP Committee Chair Michael J. Goldberg, MD. “One of the main gaps in making evidence-based practice the gold standard of orthopaedics is implementation, which can only occur with context, knowledge and understanding” says Dr. Goldberg.

“We believe this new portal will be an accessible, robust source of evidence-based knowledge for the fellowship. We want to provide context for evidence-based practice, and the EBP Portal will help do that,” he adds.

A cultural paradigm shift
Michael W. Dohm, MD, a longtime member of the Evidence-Based Practice Committee, says he initiated this project “to help AAOS fellows respond to the cultural paradigm shift currently going on in medicine.” Dr. Dohm believes that incorporating evidence-based practice into orthopaedics requires sophisticated clinical reasoning that doesn’t necessarily come naturally.

“Just like it takes a village to raise a child, evidence-based practice is a group effort,” says Dr. Dohm. “We set up the portal to bring together the important work of many individuals into one place, and to enable the fellowship to look at all that evidence-based research comprehensively in general terms.

“We have to be able to respond thoughtfully to the changes occurring in medicine, and by providing this new venue, we are also providing the fellowship with a sophisticated, evidence-based toolkit,” he continues.

Developing the EBP Portal has long been an ambition of Dr. Dohm, whose volunteer work for the Academy on evidence-based topics goes back nearly 15 years. “We wanted to develop an adaptable, flexible online knowledge portal with a great depth of information,” says Dr. Dohm. “The portal will help fellows understand and implement a clinical reasoning cycle into their practices that defines quality as we discover best practices through outcomes and performance measurement.”

Open to all
More than 40 AAOS fellows, as well as several methodological experts outside the AAOS, are providing content for the EBP portal. Dr. Dohm envisions a constantly evolving online knowledge portal that provides a wide range of information as well as an additional venue for fellows to publish their work. Any AAOS member who has done evidence-based work as a clinician scientist is welcome to submit material; Dr. Dohm and the EBP Committee will serve as the primary editorial board for the portal, in cooperation with William A. Grana, MD, MPH, OKO editor-in-chief, and the AAOS publications department.

“We want to help orthopaedists, from junior residents to the most senior fellows, learn a common vocabulary and the basic concepts of evidence-based practice,” says Dr. Dohm. “We want to respect what contributors have done so far, and give them the opportunity to offer more.”

View the new EBP Online Knowledge Portal at www5.aaos.org/OKO/page1.cfm ; to inquire about submitting content, contact Dr. Dohm at mdboneman@aol.com, or Jill Elaine Hughes, AAOS clinical quality improvement coordinator, at hughes@aaos.org.

Jill Elaine Hughes is the AAOS clinical quality improvement coordinator and the staff liaison to the Evidence-Based Practice Committee.