FAQ
Why are family physicians being selected for the pilot project?
Family medicine is one, if not the only, specialty that requires knowledge of the largest realm of conditions and treatments. Family physicians face tremendous pressure every day to make correct diagnoses related to any part of the human body and to prescribe effective treatments and make timely referrals. They are also more likely to practice in remote areas, often by themselves, far away from colleague support and universities/teaching hospitals. For these reasons we would like to extend our help to them first.
Why remote communities?
Growing up at a suburb of Toronto, Michael never had a lot of experience with rural Ontario. He first met Dr. Lalit Chawla at his clinic in downtown Chatham-Kent. It was Michael’s first visit to the area. While Chatham-Kent is a fair size municipality with a population of 100,000, the population is spread out in a large area. While traveling the smaller towns in the Chatham-Kent, Michael decided to start a pilot project to cater for the information needs of family physicians in this area. It was also done to honour Dr. Chawla and other Chatham-Kent family physicians who work tirelessly serving people in this area. The plan was to expand this service to other remote areas of Ontario.
What will happen after the pilot project is finished in August 2017?
If we receive positive feedback from the participants, Evidence Seekers will continue indefinitely. For now, our idea is to serve the family physicians first, but in the future, provided we are able to recruit enough students, we might extend our service to other physicians of other specialties in Canada. With your help this will be able to happen.
How are students matched with physicians?
Students are assigned to physicians randomly, according to the chronological order of registration. Students cannot request a specific physician.
As a student, what would happen if I initially sign up, then feel too overwhelmed in the middle of the school year and decide to quit?
Because this project is limited to simple research questions, the workload for students is minimal. As mentioned, no research question should take more than half an hour to finish on average. If you are a student, we would ask that you please think carefully before signing up. If you cannot pledge to remain committed to this project for the duration of one calendar year from September to August, we ask that you please refrain from participating, or wait until next year.
As a student, where, when, and how will I receive my training?
A certain level of training will be provided through a one-time face-to-face classroom training in Toronto during the summer, most likely on a weekend. A reading list and to-do list will be provided at the beginning, with supplementary information e-mailed to students when the need arises. While the initial study material and training will be planned and coordinated by the Coordinator, Evidence Seekers (students) are expected to be self-starters and self-learners who demonstrate initiative and are willing to learn on their own continuously. For example, Evidence Seekers are expected to learn to use the library resources of their own universities (such as medical databases or online journals) in their own time. We believe that without the spirit of lifelong self-learning, one cannot become a good healthcare practitioner in the future.
As a student, what should I do if I fail to find the answer to a specific research question provided by my assigned physician?
In the case that you cannot find the answer(s) you are looking for, or are not confident that the answer you found is the right one, we ask that you please notify your physician honestly and promptly. This is not something unusual, nor a failure of yours. Science and medicine do not always have answers for everything, and researchers often do not have all the skills, time or resources they need to find a particular answer. It is therefore okay to not have an answer, or have a less than perfect answer. During training you will nonetheless be taught to use the most relevant tools to answer questions in clinical medicine and healthcare. You will know where to look to have the best chance of finding the desired evidence.
Do you plan to maintain a webpage of useful resources for research?
Yes. Please click on 'Resources' tab to access some useful links.Some resources (i.e. Ovid Medline, Cochrane Library etc), might need authentication through a university library membership. Others are freely available on the Internet.