The CLEAR course in Auckland
At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Critical Literature Evaluation and Review (CLEAR) course in Auckland. Our group won the course quiz.
Two intensive days that will change how I read the literature and, as a result, how I work. With thanks to the faculty.
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is the body responsible for surgical training, examination and professional standards in Australia and New Zealand, across all of the surgical specialties. A surgeon's qualification to practise as a specialist in this region is awarded through the College, and the College continues to set the requirements for professional development once training is complete.
What the CLEAR course covers
CLEAR teaches critical appraisal: how to read a published study and judge how much weight its conclusions deserve. The course works through study design, sources of bias, sample size, statistical methods, and the difference between a result that is statistically significant and one that matters to a patient.
Why this matters in practice
A great deal is published in orthopaedics every year, and the papers do not all agree with one another. A surgeon deciding whether to change a method has to work out which studies are sound, which are too small or too selective to rely on, and where the evidence is genuinely unsettled. Without that skill, practice tends to follow whatever was published most recently or presented most confidently.
Critical appraisal also works in the other direction. A surgeon who understands how studies go wrong designs better ones, and is more careful about what their own data can and cannot show.
Related information
See also our post on the CLEAR course in Sydney, and our research and publications pages.