Participants' reflections on the CEBHA Workshop on Evidence Based Healthcare in Bujumbura, Burundi

During the first week of July 2013, the Collaboration for Evidence Based Healthcare in Africa (CEBHA) organized a 4-day introductory workshop on Evidence Based Healthcare for doctors and allied health professionals in Bujumbura, Burundi. The workshop was organized in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health and the University of Burundi, Faculty of Medicine. The workshop facilitators were Dr Frode Forland and Dr Fergus Macbeth from the Royal Tropical Institute, and information specialist Joseph Lune Ngenzi from the Kigali Health Institute in Rwanda, who was assisted by Burundian librarians Vital Karagiye and Aline Niyubahwe.

Among the 22 workshop participants were leading clinicians from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Burundi, representing several clinical specialties, as well as researchers and public health physicians and representatives from Burundi's Ministry of Health.

Three participants were asked about their impressions of the workshop:

Louis NgendahayoDr Louis Ngendahayo, Associate Professor of Anatomic Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Burundi: "The objectives of this first course in EBM in Burundi fully met my expectations. I have gained knowledge and skills that will help me to build research capacities and also to improve my approach and methodology to teach medical students. I found the workshop very useful, especially developing a PICO, critical appraisal and using different databases. However there is need for a mentoring process and more collaboration through the CEBHA network."

Sandra NkurunzizaDr Sandra Nkurunziza, Faculty of Medicine, University of Burundi: "I found the workshop very useful for me. The most interesting parts were about the concept of PICO in research, the use of different databases and about how to develop and evaluate guidelines. There should be more time for practical exercises and it would be helpful also to have more time on assessing and interpreting systematic reviews."

 

 

Idosie Kenfack, Biologist, Manager of the National Referral Tuberculosis Laboratory at the National Institute of Public Health: "I found the workshop useful for me. I have learnt about the use of the HINARI database and how to formulate questions for research and retrieval of literature using the PICO format. There is need for more time and support for those who want to develop their evidence based research topics."