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Evidence-Based Practice (OPH): Appraise

Appraise

Before you can apply evidence to your patient, you need to undertake a thorough appraisal. The four questions below are from the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) at Oxford University. These provide a good starting point for appraising any clinical question.

Critical Appraisal

"Critical appraisal is the systematic evaluation of clinical research papers in order to establish:

Does this study address a clearly focused question?
Did the study use valid methods to address this question?
Are the valid results of this study important?
Are these valid, important results applicable to my patient or population?"

From: Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) http://www.cebm.net/critical-appraisal/

Featured Journals

BMJ archive, specialities and evidence summaries Includes articles and resources from specialities and BMJ Learning
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Evidence-Based Medicine
Evidence-Based Mental Health
Evidence-Based Midwifery
Evidence-Based Nursing

More Resources

from JAMA: Users' Guides to the Medical Literature. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group

How to Read a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis and Apply the Results to Patient Care Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature JAMA. 2014;312(2):171-17
How to Use an Article About a Diagnostic Test A. Are the Results of the Study Valid? JAMA. 1994;271(5):389-391
How to Use an Article About a Diagnostic Test B. What Are the Results and Will They Help Me in Caring for My Patients? JAMA. 1994;271(9):703-707
How to Use an Article About Disease Probability for Differential Diagnosis JAMA. 1999;281(13):1214-1219
How to Use an Article About Harm JAMA. 1994;271(20):1615-1619
How to Use an Article About Prognosis JAMA. 1994;272(3):234-237
How to Use an Article About Quality Improvement JAMA. 2010;304(20):2279-2287
How to Use an Article About Therapy or Prevention A. Are the Results of the Study Valid? JAMA. 1993;270(21):2598-2601
How to Use an Article About Therapy or Prevention B. What Were the Results and Will They Help Me in Caring for My Patients? JAMA. 1994;271(1):59-63
How to Use an Article Reporting a Multiple Treatment Comparison Meta-analysis JAMA. 2012;308(12):1246-1253
How to Use a Treatment Recommendation JAMA. 1999;281(19):1836-1843
How to Use Clinical Practice Guidelines A. Are the Recommendations Valid? JAMA. 1995;274(7):570-574
How to Use Clinical Practice Guidelines B. What Are the Recommendations and Will They Help You in Caring for Your Patients? JAMA. 1995;274(20):1630-1632

Critical Appraisal Tools & Tutorials

CATmaker Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (Oxford, UK). CATmaker is a computer-assisted critical appraisal tool. It provides guided Therapy, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Aetiology/Harm and Systematic Reviews of Therapy
Critical appraisal of medical literature online tutorial Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Provides skills training, workshops, tools and checklists to help you read and check health research for validity and relevance
Critical appraisal tools Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (Oxford, UK). Provides a list of useful tools to critically appraise the validity of your literature
Critical appraisal tools - JBI Joanna Briggs Institute
Critical appraisal worksheets Duke University Medical Centre Library
Critical appraisal worksheets Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)
Duke University Medical Centre Library: Evidence-Based Practice Provides tutorial on EBP including Appraise and Calculate results, measures and specialities.
Introduction to... Critical appraisal of literature Primary Health Care Research & Information Service
Protocols to critically review quantitative and qualitative research articles Occupational Therapy Evidence-Based Practice Research Group, McMaster University