Research Literacy for CAM Practitioners

"Research Literacy is the ability to find, understand and critically evaluate research evidence for application in professional practice." It is important that all professionals including CAM professionals are competent consumers of research because not all information is created equal and via rigorous research. Some of it is biased or the results and conclusion may be misleading. It is also possible that an inexperienced researcher might publish a study with so many limitations. A novice research consumer may not realize the significance of the limitations while interpreting the results. Given the increase in accessibility and availability of research information to all including patients, CAM practitioners are required to be competent to evaluate therapeutic modalities within their profession and outside their profession to guide their patients properly.

This paper will discuss the following: - Types of Clinical Research - Purpose and Advantages and Disadvantages of Most common types of clinical research designs - Critical Appraisal Tools for the most common types of research studies

Most common limitations related to sample size, randomization techniques, sample recruitment, intervention details, blinding, etc. will be highlighted and a cheat sheet will be provided to the attendees