“It would have taken me a lifetime to understand some of the concepts that were taught. Invaluable.” (CLEAR participant feedback)

 

The RACS CLEAR course has been educating surgeons, Trainees, registrars, and junior medical officers (JMOs) for more than 20 years. CLEAR (Critical Literature Evaluation and Research) is held six times a year in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Wellington, and Perth (every alternate year). It teaches participants to critically appraise medical literature and provides tools for designing and implementing surgical research.

Cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Michael Byrom, chair of the CLEAR course, has been instructing CLEAR for more than a decade and is part of the working group that extensively rewrote the course in recent years. “I often introduce the CLEAR course as arguably the most useful of the RACS skills courses, or at least the most frequently used. After all, we use the concepts taught every day in our clinical practice,” he says.

The CLEAR faculty are passionate about explaining the concepts behind evidence-based medicine and research. A number of pre-course online modules provide extensive background knowledge that participants can cover in their own time. Then at the face-to-face course over two days, faculty aim to provide interactive and engaging sessions where participants can put their knowledge into practice. Major topics that are covered include study design, critical appraisal methods, statistics, and particular study types including randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews. Newer study designs are also introduced, such as non-inferiority studies and propensity score methods.

Dr Byrom says, “You don’t need to understand detailed statistical methods to tell whether a study provides useful information”. Participants are taught how different study designs deal with bias, how to interpret the study results, and methods to appraise study quality—skills used by clinicians seeking to apply evidence to inform clinical practice.

“Many of the participants are residents or unaccredited registrars seeking to apply to SET positions in the future. The course also provides valuable information for those pursuing a career in surgery including how to conduct your own research, and principles of surgical audit.”  

A course, specifically for surgical consultants, was popular among FRACS before skills courses were paused due to the pandemic. A new consultant course is currently under development. “A survey will be available to investigate what the specific needs of RACS Fellows are in the new consultant CLEAR course”. Ideas include discussing current research projects, using REDCap databases, or expanded discussion of audit and quality improvement methods.

The face-to-face course is held on a Friday and Saturday, and a popular social function is included at the completion of day 1. The detailed course handbook provides a valuable future resource.

The CLEAR course is suitable for anyone seeking to inform their research knowledge and clinical practice, from resident/house officer to consultant.

 

CLEAR is also on the lookout for new faculty. If you have a background in teaching or conducting research and would like to leverage these skills as a RACS educator, please contact the CLEAR team at [email protected]

Find out more about CLEAR