Evidence Based Medicine

Question 1

What determines usefulness?

Answer 1

Relevance x Validity / Work (of obtaining)

Question 2

What should you ask yourself when determining relevance of information?

Answer 2

1. Did the study evaluate an outcome patient’s actually care about? (Like not dying, functional status)
2. Did the study evaluate a condition that is relevant to your practice?
3. If the information is true, would the findings require you to change the way you practice?

Question 3

What are various kinds of sources to look to answer clinical questions?

Answer 3

1. Review Articles (Systemic Review / Meta-Analysis)
2. Summary Reviews
3. Practice Guidelines
4. Research Articles
5. Experience
6. Lectures

Question 4

Why are controlled circulation journals not the best source of information?

Answer 4

There is no quality control of the articles and do not always encompass ALL of the information.

Question 5

What type of information is generally gained from case control or cohort studies?

Answer 5

Finding associations between risk factors. Unable to adjust for unknown confounding variables.

Question 6

How are likelihood ratio used?

Answer 6

5. 0+ —> detecting presence of disease

0. 2> –> absence of disease