Highlights from the 2001 Progress Report

In 2001, the Centre secured opportunities confirming its leadership in the domain of evidence-based health informatics.

Hundreds of users now access customized integrated desktops developed by the Centre. These are delivered over the internet from CHE servers. The technology has been installed in hospitals, offices, and homes across Alberta and Canada, and in locations in the US, Europe, and Hong Kong.

Further highlights:

A staff retreat led to a clearer vision for the future
The CHE began the year by welcoming a full-time Program Coordinator to oversee its projects and interests
In the spring, a Network Engineer was hired to expand the technical capabilities of the Centre and manage its growth
The Centre also hired a new Education and Content Specialist with experience in teaching evidence-based practice
The CHE Fellow, Dr. Raymond Leung, extended his expertise to include personal digital assistants (PDAs) and their function for practicing clinicians

Under Dr. Leung’s guidance, the CHE staff began to develop expertise with PDAs and associated health-related applications

More evidence-based structured abstracts were developed for resources used in CHE projects
The CHE continued to be the only website in the world authorized to publish the Users' Guides to Evidence-Based Practice series of working papers

Those articles form the basis of the book Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice, for which the CHE developed a CD-ROM product
In 2001, the Centre developed an interactive version of the Users' Guides book, including calculators and worksheets, to be launched early in 2002
For more information visit http://www.usersguides.org

In collaboration with the University of Alberta Advanced Technologies for Learning, the CHE began developing an online instruction guide to assist CHE project partners who wish to develop virtual learning communities

One such partner, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, joined forces with the Centre resulting in CHE developing and maintaining the online component of a province-wide initiative (SEARCH Program)

The CHE website was completely redesigned and launched in the autumn
CHE Co-Director Dr. Robert Hayward and staff developed and piloted a course called Critical Appraisal of the Health Care Literature, being taught at the University of Alberta in 2002
Dr. Hayward and staff presented two workshops on teaching evidence-based medicine at both the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University

For further information on the activities of the CHE, please see the Projects section of the website.