Introduction

As society gains greater access to healthcare information, clinicians must be armed with the skills to find and evaluate the scientific evidence in order to answer patient questions and provide up-to-date care.  This has become increasingly difficult considering the amount of information available via the Internet and media.  Just keeping up with the scientific literature in our own professional journals is overwhelming and, unfortunately, “less than 15% of all articles published on a particular topic are useful {for patient care}.  Most articles are not peer-reviewed, are sponsored by those with commercial interests, or arrive free in the mail.  Even articles published in prestigious journals are far from perfect.”^2,3  Because of the flaws that can be found in published research and the conclusions drawn that may not be supported by the data, clinicians need to be responsible for judging the validity and clinical importance of the scientific literature.

Once you have found the most current evidence, the next step in the EBDM process is to understand what you have and its relevance to your patient.  Fortunately, the tools to critically appraise papers based on the type of question being asked have been developed by the evidence-based medicine group at McMaster University and adapted by other evidence-based groups worldwide.^4-6  These tools consist of a structured series of questions that help you determine the strengths and weaknesses of how a study was conducted, how information was collected, and how useful and applicable the evidence is to the specific patient problem or question being asked.^4,7,8

Click Here To Navigate Within Article >> Abstract Introduction Key Questions in Appraising the Scientific Literature Case Example Common Ways of Presenting Data Practice Tips Conclusions Appendix A: Glossary of Evidence-Based Terms References About the Authors
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Citation Number: Vol. 4, No. 1, Page 043