Research Concepts Flashcards
What is the highest level evidence of EBM?
Meta-analysis
What is the second highest level of EBM?
Systematic review
What is the third highest level of EBM?
RCT
What is meant by meta-analysis?
Research process allowing the merging/collating of independent studies to evaluate the overall effect
What is a systematic review?
Summary of medical literature using explicit and reproducible methods to search, critically appraise and synthesise
What is meant by a ‘cohort study’?
Follows a cohort of people (usually sharing a similar characteristic) over time to observe the effect of a certain factor
What kind of study may cohort studies be useful for?
Epidemiological
What are case-control studies?
Takes one group (case) compared to control group and compare frequency of a certain factor in retrospect
What are case reports?
Provide a detailed report about one patient’s symptoms, investigation, management etc - usually a rare or new occurrence
What are the two main types of study?
Experimental and observational
What is the purpose of a Phase I clinical trial?
Establish safety and safe dose
What is the purpose of a Phase II clinical trial?
investigate efficacy and continue to monitor safety and adverse effects
What is the purpose of a Phase III clinical trial?
compare effectiveness compared to other treatments and monitor side effects
What is the purpose of a Phase IV trial?
to provide additional info after approval
What is the Helsinki protocol?
Outlines ethical principles for medical research on human subjects
Give examples of principles within the Helsinki protocol
Doing what is in your patient’s best interests
Protection for particularly vulnerable groups
Requirement for research ethics committees
Consent, Confidentiality etc
What is the difference between research and audit?
Audit is to determine how you are doing against standards whereas research aims to add info to the body of evidence
What is meant by ‘closing the loop’?
setting recommendations for improvement and also plans for follow-up
What is involved in the QI cycle?
Plan, Do, Check, Act
What is meant by p < 0.05?
the result is statistically significant, and unlikely to have occurred by chance
What is a t-test used for?
to test a null hypothesis by comparing the means of two independent groups
What is meant by a confidence interval?
range of values that you expect your results to fall within x% of the time if the experiment was repeated, for example 95% CI
What is meant by incidence?
number of new cases/period in time
What is meant by prevalence?
total number of cases/total no of people
What is meant by absolute risk?
chance of something happening ie. 1 in 8 chance of a women in the UK developing cancer
What is meant by relative risk?
risk compared to another group, for example, relative risk of breast cancer would be increased in those with BRCA mutations
Which test is used to compare survival between two groups?
Log rank test
What are type 1 statistical errors?
False positive
What are type 2 statistical errors?
False negative
How are large research projects funded?
Can come from a range of sources including charities, private companies, government, trusts, research councils (eg. MRC)
Can the company funding the trial conduct it?
No - they must be run independently - protocol agreed by all parties and ethics review board
How would you go about critically appraising a paper?
Journal
PICO: Population, Intervention, Control, Outcome
Bias
Strengths & weaknesses
Validity
Clinical implications
What are the main types of bias to consider?
SPIES
Selection
Performance
Information/detection
Exclusion
Selective
