GP Synergy – Evidence-Based Medicine

Module 3 – Critical appraisal – Part I, Searching, PICO, and Internal Validity

This module will introduce the method of critical appraisal for intervention studies.

References and optional readings

US Cochrane Center: Understanding Evidence-based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action

• Module 4, Section 1 [Searching for healthcare information, assessing harms and benefits]: http://tiny.cc/fvwhi
• Module 3, Section 3 [Placebos, masking, and bias]: http://tiny.cc/pifmi

PubMed

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Guyatt GH, Sackett DL, Cook DJ. Users’ guides to the medical literature. II. How to use an article about therapy or prevention. A. Are the results of the study valid? JAMA 1993; 270(21): 2598-2601

• http://tiny.cc/vktc8

Wikipedia:

• Clever Hans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_hans
• Hawthorne effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
• Rosenthal effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenthal_effect

Centre of Evidence-Based Medicine: Critical appraisal worksheets

• http://www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1157

Barbosa-Cesnik C, Brown MB, Buxton M, et al. Cranberry juice fails to prevent recurrent urinary tract infection: results from a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2011; 52: 23-30

• http://tiny.cc/dsa8i