The Clinical Translational Science Institute/Evidence-Based Medicine group recently received the prestigious Thomas C. Chalmers Award in the field of evidence-based medicine. 

The award was given to  Dr. Rahul Mhaskar and a team of researchers led by Dr. Benjamin Djulbegovic for their scientific work entitled  “True methodological quality of trials are not reflected in their reporting.”  They were recognized at the Nineteenth Cochrane Colloquium in Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Rahul Mhaskar

The lead author and awardee on the poster was Dr. Mhaskar along with Anja Magazine, Heloisa Soares, Ambuj Kumar and Dr. Djulbegovic. The research team is from USF Health’s Center for Evidence-Based Medicine and Health Outcomes Research and Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). It was supported by the NIH R01 grant (PI: Dr. Djulbegovic). The work tackled the central issue of evidence-based medicine: how the methods of critical appraisal can be improved.  The paper is accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

The practice and science of evidence-based medicine (EBM) is considered the key for improving  patient outcomes. Further methodological advances in the field are essential for development of EBM, which is the scientific underpinning of modern medicine.  The Thomas C Chalmers Award established by the Cochrane Collaboration was created to recognize advances in methodology of EBM based on originality of thought, high quality science, relevance to the advancement of the science of systematic reviews, and clarity of presentation.

This is the second time that the work performed through CEBM has received the Thomas C Chalmers Award.  Dr. Djulbegovic and colleagues received the evidence-based medicine award in 1999 for their research titled  “Empirical verification of the uncertainty principle in conducting randomized trials.”  Published in Lancet, the work described the “law of clinical discoveries” and was selected as the first representative paper of the 21st Century by the James Lind Library.