EBM Week 1

Question 1

EBM promotes the use of evidence that is what?

Three words

Answer 1

Valid/true, important, and applicable

Question 2

Describe the entire EBM process at a glance.

Answer 2

1. You or your patient has a question
2. Translate the question into a search strategy (PICO)
3. Apply search strategy to appropriate database (refine search as necessary)
4. Assess trustworthiness of database and appraise evidence for validity and importance
5. Apply or interpret inferential statistics to assess applicability of evidence to a broad population of patients
6. Apply principles to assess degree of applicability of evidence to an individual patient
7. Effectively communicate answer to original question to patient

Question 3

What is root cause analysis?

Answer 3

A structured method used to analyze the cause/s of serious adverse events

Question 4

A central tenet of root cause analysis is what?

Answer 4

To identify underlying problems that increase the likelihood of errors while avoiding the trap of focusing on the mistakes by individuals

Question 5

Root cause analysis uses the systems approach to identify what?

Two things

Answer 5

• Active errors (errors occurring at the point of interface between humans and a complex system)
• Latent errors (the hidden problems within healthcare systems that contribute to adverse events)

Question 6

What is the ultimate goal of RCA?

Answer 6

To eliminate latent erros that so often underlie adverse events

Question 7

What are types of factors that may lead to latent errors?

Answer 7

Institutional/regulatory, organizational/management, work environment, team environment, staffing, task-related, patient characteristics

Question 8

What is correlation?

Answer 8

The degree and direction of relatedness between two variables

Question 9

What does the correlation coefficient express?

Answer 9

Mathematically expresses the degree and direction of association between variables on a scale that varies from +1 through 0 to -1

Complete (perfect) correlation between two variables is expressed by either +1 or -1

Question 10

What does the square of the correlation coefficient tell us?

Answer 10

The percentage of variability that is accounted for by one variable relative to the other