Main description:

Having an understanding of critical appraisal and evidence-based medicine is a prerequisite to being an effective clinician. However, critical appraisal is often taught by people not involved in day-to-day clinical care, meaning the clinical relevance is not always brought to the fore.

This book takes a different approach. It is written by clinicians, for clinicians. It takes the reader step by step through the process so that any journal article can be easily read, evidence evaluated and the results - and their reliability - truly understood. By integrating this with knowledge of local skills and resources and patient preference, the reader will be able to apply the best possible care that his or her patients deserve.

This accessible book is suitable for undergraduates and postgraduates of all medical specialties, nursing, paramedics, pharmacists and all allied health professions. It is the ideal reference for anyone needing help writing a clinical topic review, reviewing a paper in a journal club or preparing for a critical appraisal exam. But most importantly, it is essential for those who wish to practice medicine in the best possible way for their patients, using the best evidence, tailored to the individual.

Contents:

About the authors

Foreword

Introduction

Section 1: Introduction to critical appraisal

Chapter 1: Types of papers and grades of evidence

Chapter 2: An approach to appraising papers

Section 2: Basic Statistics

Chapter 3: Types of Data and moving from samples to populations

Chapter 4: P values, confidence intervals and types of Error

Chapter 5: Basic Probability

Section 3: Appraising different types of papers

Chapter 6: Observational papers (Case series, case control, cohort, cross sectional, ecological)

Chapter 7: papers

Chapter 8: Therapeutic papers

Chapter 9a: Diagnostic papers / Chapter 9b: Screening papers

Chapter 10: Prognostic papers

Chapter 11: Economic Assessment Papers

Chapter 12: Meta-analysis

Section 4: Applying the knowledge

Chapter 13: Writing a clinical topic review

Chapter 14; Running a journal club

Chapter 15: Creating a 'best available' evidence based clinical environment

Section 5: Critical appraisal exams

Chapter 16: An approach to critical appraisal exams

Chapter 17: Practice papers

Glossary of terms