Thank you for this - I will reference retractionwatch in my sessions with students - an evidence source - better than what they often regard as my personal skeptic trait. Like you I find that students(& indeed seniors) often read only the abstracts - sometimes just the conclusions! Not all of them certainly, but enough to have made me ask my question. You may like this article

Anthony Bowen and Arturo Casadevall: Increasing disparities between resource inputs and outcomes, as measured by certain health deliverables, in biomedical research. PNAS 2015 ; published ahead of print August 17, 2015 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/08/12/1504955112.full.pdf

Excellent question - thank you! Upfront: I have the same problem and no answer to it. Over time, however, I found another question even more interesting: should medical students read (and appraise) primary research studies at all? Or should we just admitt that most of our students leave medical school without the ability (or even an interest) to read these studies and instead train them in finding and applying research synthesis (cochrane, uptodate, reviews, guidelines, anything like that)? After all, it is usually not that one single study that changes the way we approach treatment and I doubt many students (or practicing physicians) spend a lot of time following the relevant journals in their field until three or more large scale studies point into the same direction.

Interestingly, even most regulating bodies cannot agree on what makes a doctor a scholar: most outcomeframeworks (like tommorows doctors, scotish doctor, dutch blueprint or CanMeds) somehow define the role of a scholar. Most agree that "critically apraising evidence" or "locating and applying evidence relevant to a patient problem" is required - but to what extend students are expected to formulate a research question, apply statistical tests or present results is very different between frameworks (ranging from zero to full active research education). However, if one does not know which test to apply to what type of data, how can one possibly appraise the test-results, let alone critically.

I would suggest that providing reviews instead of primary research to your students should ease the problem: they are much easier to critique and over time, students will learn how the reviewers valued the primary publications.

Hi Patricia,

It is certainly a very interesting question, critical thinking and evaluation of research are quite important for the future doctors.

There is an interesting study that recently came out of Sanford and UBC, asking the same question, but for physics students. I attached the description of the paper in Stanford newsletter:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/august/thinking-holmes-wieman-081715.html

Similar experiment can be designed for medical students using health-related data. Being involved in research teaches students a lot about critical thinking and evaluation of their own and their peers' research. Of course, this would require space in the curriculum to engage students in experimental work, I understand that it is not always possible to implement.

Hi a really good question. What we do in our dept is we keep journal reading activity.the stdents havexto do 

Hello due to internet problem I could not complete the answer.what I wascsuggestingviscthat you can form a group of students with the faculty. Upload any articlecand ask each student to prepare givivg splits

Thank you everyone for your replies - they are really helpful - and  thinking about them, do-able with some imagination even in a busy timetable. I can see how I can be more directive in case studies & coursework to prompt/push critical appraisal of evidence whether single study or as suggested, reviews. The Stanford work is so obvious in one way - & reminds me of the opportunities I overlook in training students in scientific method & thence critical thinking. Thank you for this link.

I totally agree that they include medical students in biomedical research.

The student who investigates is more competent, besides possessing theoretical knowledge acquires practical skills which allows him to be a more qualified professional and guide his future line of investigation.

I suggest to consult the following manuscripts.

Best regards,

Javier Gonzalez-Argote

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