Exam 1 Flashcards
What is a definition of evidence-based practice?
integrating the use of best evidence in treating patients which is a balance of clinical expertise, patient feedback and external clinical evidence (research)
Welcomes clinical skill and experience
If there is a better way to practice therapists should find it
Blend old ways with new knowledge
Incorporates patient feedback into best practice
What are the driving forces behind the use of evidence-based practice?
Unexplained variation in practice
Health care costs
Medical errors
Harm now seen in previously approved treatments
Technology trends and advancement in outcome research
What are 3 principle sources of evidence (knowledge) that go into best evidence?
Clinical wisdom – experience from clinical practice
Research wisdom – what gained from research
Patient wisdom – what learned from patient and family
What are the characteristics of a clinician that embraces EBP?
Those practitioners who question their own practice
Those who are “humble about what they know”
Those who always want to improve their own practice
What are the steps in the EBP Process?
Develop clinical questions
Finding of the evidence to answer those clinical questions
Appraisal of this evidence
Application of evidence to their practice
Evaluation of clinical outcomes based upon the application of evidence
What are the myths associated with EBP & what is the reality of those myths?
MYTH - EBP already exists
REALITY - Many practitioners spend little or no time reviewing current medical findings & being introspective about their own practice
MYTH - EBP is impossible to put into place
REALITY - Little work is needed to begin asking clinical questions
MYTH - EBP is cookie cutter health care
REALITY - It is a balance of the 3 factors: practitioner knowledge & practice, clinical research and patient involvement. Guidelines are developed to enhance care and to standardize best clinical practice but allows for appropriate patient based variation in care.
MYTH - EBP is strictly a cost cutting mechanism
REALITY - EBP is designed to eliminate unneeded & ineffective interventions and in that way it is cost cutting. The emphasis is on practice based upon best clinical evidence not the least expensive form of practice.
How do we learn best?
We learn best from intermittent reinforcement – when periodically we receive information
What is confirmation bias?
“confirmation bias” - the tendency we have to see only what confirms our belief, and disregard, or rationalize, contradictory evidence
Good studies designed to eliminate what factor?
A good experimental study is one that is designed to lessen or eliminated the influence of experimenter bias on the outcome of the study
The greater the attempt to eliminated this bias, the higher the quality of the study.
How do we identify a research article?
It is asking a question
It has a methods section
It has a results section
It discusses those results in the context of other studies
What three questions need we answer from all research?
Do these results apply to my patients?
Are the results just by chance or real?
Is there a cause & effect relationship between the intervention and outcome?
What are the levels of evidence from the literature?
Editorials/Opinion
Non-experimental research
Experimental Research
What are some problems associated with good research?
Costly & time consuming
Experimental studies & meta-analyses sometimes hard to generalize because of subgroup composition, effect size and quality of outcome measure
Presentation of evidence sometimes hard to translate into practice
Problems from a clinicians viewpoint:
Lack of time & resources for searching for evidence
Availability of articles to answer you clinical questions
Time to apply the results to your patients
Experimental Research
An active intervention is involved
Those that use more than one group of subjects
One of the groups is a control group – do not have the active intervention
Subjects are randomized to groups – that is not assigned to groups because of their characteristics but have an equal chance of being in a group when they enter a study
Editorials/Opinions
Not necessarily factual; show a lot bias
Non-experimental research
studies that use single subjects or single groups or do not have an active intervention
Systematic review
when articles are judged for quality with higher quality articles given more weight in conclusions
Meta-analysis
mathematically assigned weights
combination of articles to strengthen results
Clinical Guidelines
when panels of experts review experimental research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses to state what “best practice” is
What is a theory?
organized set of constructs or concepts that is proposed to describe and explain systematically a phenomenon
What are the two basic hypotheses?
Null hypothesis – no difference between groups
Experimental (research/alternative) hypothesis – difference between groups
What are 3 key clinical (patient-oriented) questions that need to be asked about each article?
Do these results apply to my patients?
Are the results just by chance or real?
Is there a cause & effect relationship between the intervention and outcome?
What are the main types of questions that are asked?
“Background” questions ask for general knowledge about a condition or thing.
“Foreground” questions ask for specific knowledge to inform clinical decisions or actions.
What is the PICO method for formulating clinical questions?
Patient - Describe as accurately as possible the patient or group of patients of interest
Intervention – Indicate the main intervention or therapy you wish to consider (in other forms of research you can also investigate cause or prognosis)
Comparison (optional) – List any alternative treatment which you wish to compare with the primary treatment you have listed under intervention (some include placebo here – some not)
Outcome – List the particular outcome measure you are studying including a time frame over which you expect the change in the outcome measure to occur
Clinical questions can be asked about what 6 content areas?
- interventions
- clinical measures - reliability, validity, responsiveness
- diagnostic tests - accuracy, risk, cost, etc
- prognostic factors - predict future health and disease
- Self-Reported Outcomes - End point of therapeutic intervention with an analysis of how these outcomes can be measured and the relevance of these outcomes to the patient’s activities
- Clinical Prediction Rules - Clinical prediction rules are systematically derived indications of what types of patients may most benefit from interventions
What is a hypothesis?
a specific prediction of an outcome based upon previous literature or theory/conceptual framework
What is a Boolean operator and why is it valuable in using research databases?
Speeds up a search:
able to combine terms
able to eliminate directions you do not want to go
AND-Narrow search and retrieve records containing all of the words it separates.
OR-Broaden search and retrieve records containing any of the words it separates.
NOT-Narrow search and retrieve records that do not contain the term following it.
() -Group words or phrases when combining Boolean phrases and to show the order in which relationships should be considered
What are search limits and how can they be valuable in searching a database?
Narrow the search to certain categories of articles to enhance the efficiency of the search process
What are the benefits and limits of PubMed (Medline)?
Free
Comprehensive – but many journals is specific areas of physical therapy
Linked to online journal and full text versions of article
Rigorous standards for determining which journals will be included (indexed)
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) – systematic way to retreave information OR general keyboard search
Search history available
Clinical Queries – evidence-based practice database on the home page
Related articles function
Can personalize it “My NCBI”
Tutorials
What are the types of journal articles and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Peer- reviewed journals – critically reviewed before publication so more sure of quality
Non-peer reviewed journals/magazines – no prepublication review so unsure of quality
Monographs - Less critical review but reviewed at several levels however information rapidly out-of-date (can be out of date at publication)
Conference proceedings – often appearing as monographs related to single topic
What are the types of sources for websites and what are their functions?
News & Current Events – general & specialty sites newspapers & magazines
Business & marketing – corporate, selling a product
Informational – government CDC & NIH & online encyclopedias – wikis & professional organizations
Advocacy - attempt to influence public opinion, online presence of advocacy organizations disease oriented in the health sphere & professional organizations
Personal – hobbists, bloggers, specialty topics, clubs
Others – entertainment
What are the characteristics that you are looking for in a quality website and what questions you would ask about such a site?
relevant to question, updated, reliable source, useful?
Authority – Who authored site & what are their credentials?
Accuracy – Information match other resources?
Objectivity – Is the information balanced or have one point of view?
Currency – How recent information?
Scope – How broad or narrow?
Commercialism – Selling something?
What are the elements of an evidence matrix?
Complete Citation Purpose Statement/Hypothesis Design Type Sample Information Intervention/Independent Variable/Grouping Outcome/Dependent Variable/Measures
What are the benefits and limits of CINAHL?
Cumulative Index of Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL):
Focuses on Nursing & Allied Health – includes journals not covered in Medline
Somewhat less comprehensive
Can use limits & returns additional limits
Easy to view search history
Advanced and basic search options
Statistical Analysis
Identification of Confounding Variables
Threats to Internal Validity
What are the benefits and limits of PEDro?
Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) Characteristics
Citations of > 16,000 RCTs, systematic reviews, & clinical practice guidelines
Combines citations and ratings of articles
Exclusively PT
An ability to search by:
Therapeutic approach
Clinical Problem
Body part
PT subspecialty
Can use Boolean operators
Tutorials
What are the benefits and limits of Cochrane Library?
Databases of systematic reviews & meta-analysis
Limited to clinical questions reviewed
Limited to interventions having randomized clinical trials
Few trials on other areas than interventions
Subscription fees but Armstrong has access
Peer Reviewed Articles
Reviewed by a panel of 2-3 reviewers and an area editor – most often articles are returned to the author for revisions and corrections
Research articles – characterized by having intro methods, results & discussion & peer reviewed
Short reports – research articles with same parts but often unlabeled
Editorials (PR)
– invited presentations to discuss issues in the field
Systematic Reviews (PR)
– address overall questions & compares articles with discussion of limitations, article quality
Regular reviews (PR)
– summarize results of research articles but not as critical as systematic reviews
Clinical Guidelines (PR)
– in journals from professional organizations
– statement of that organizations opinion on treatments or other issues
Book reviews, Article Reviews & Technology articles (PR)
– short reviews/critiques of books, articles from other journals & new equipment/software
What are the 5 general features of a research design?
- Philosophical Approach - Quantitative vs Qualitative
- Design Format
- Number of Groups
- Degree of Control of Study Methods
- Time Elements