Health

The origin of levels of evidence and their relevance to the EBM, with examples drawn from the field of plastic surgery. [2012]

Comprehensive guide to the process of conducting meta-analysis: selecting articles, inclusion criteria, effect sizes, practical analysis execution, and estimating publication bias. From the British Psychological Society.

Exceptionally detailed handbook of the procedures necessary to conduct a systematic review. From the authoritative Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York, publisher of DARE (Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects).

Detailed exposition of all the critical procedures of conducting SRs and MAs, with invaluable tips and guides, including on the use of the Cochrane automatic SR/MA software tool RevMan.

Practical lessons on the highly variable quality of systematic reviews themselves, with an illustrative case study showing how different systematic reviews on the same question can arrive at opposite conclusions. [2001]

The seminal paper on how to resolve discordance across systematic reviews, from the eminent expert Alejandro Jadad at McMaster University. [1997]

Guidance on some of the major limitations besetting systematic reviews (including limited datasets, unpublished data, and both statistical and clinical heterogeneity). [2007]

Provides criteria to use to critically appraise systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and documents some of the key pitfalls of each. [2003]

The cautions needed in reading and conducting a systematic review, especially strong on sensitivity analysis, meta-regression, sub-group analysis, publication bias and missing data. [2005]

A 'how to' guide to the development of clinical practice guidelines, including synthesis, grading, presentation and the derivation of recommendations. [2012]

Discusses the strengths and limitations of narrative and systematic reviews and meta-analyses and how to critically appraise them. [2008]

First of a four-part comprehensive mini-course on Evidence-Based Medicine; covers basic EBM principles and motivation.

Second of a four-part comprehensive mini-course on Evidence-Based Medicine; covers the purpose, design and different types of RCTs.

Fourth of a four-part comprehensive mini-course on Evidence-Based Medicine; covers a sample clinical scenario through the process of the art of formulating answerable clinical questions, finding evidence, critically appraising evidence, and putting evidence into practice.

How to use the PICO Strategy for the construction of an appropriate research question and review of the literature.

Practical guidelines for minimizing the risk of conducting a mediocre meta-analysis and for supporting researchers to accurately evaluate the published findings. [2013]

Discussion of study validity and the assessment of different forms of bias. [2012]

Critically examines the issue of what category of evidence should be placed at the peak of the evidence-based hierarchy/pyramid, either the randomized clinical trial (RCT), or the systematic review with meta-analysis (SR/MA), then outlines how to improve the value of meta-analytic evidence. [2014]

Guidelines for when and how to search, and assess, "grey literature" (typically non-peer-reviewed conference abstracts, books, dissertations, regulatory reports, etc.) when conducting a systematic review or meta-analysis. From Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). [2013]

Describes and illustrates with practical examples the concept and procedure of random allocation as used in randomized controlled trials/studies (RCTs), including simple, block and stratified randomization. [2014]

Describes the potential superiority in well-defined cases of adaptive randomization which allocates more patients to the better treatments as the data accumulates in the trial. [2012]

Describes I-SPY, a groundbreaking dynamic adaptive randomization model for accelerating both identification and regulatory approval of effective investigational agents. [2013]

Demonstrates an assessment of sugar-sweetened beverages and type 2 diabetes as an example to show how the new technique called ‘evidence mapping’ can be used to organize studies and evaluate design heterogeneity prior to meta-analysis. [2014]

Concise review of the essential concepts and implementation of evidence-based medicine. [2014]

Clinical trial comparing a blended learning (BL) versus didactic learning (DL) approach for teaching EBM, concluding that a multifaceted approach incorporating BL may be best suited for medical students. [2015]

Detailed guidance on how to conduct a systematic review or meta-analysis, with accompanying lectures developed by the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology (CCACE).

Discusses and details the important concept of conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses for preclinical (in vitro and in vovo) research. [2014]

Details how the design, conduct, and analysis of animal experiments may be optimized through the use of systematic reviews. [2014]

Comprehensive guide to conducting a meta-analysis, including a detailed case study (43 pp.). [2014]

A review of adaptive clinical trial design and adpative randomization, examining their impact, challenges, obstacles, and strategies for effective deployment. [2008]

Critically examines the potential benefits and disadvantages of adaptive trial designs, which use accumulating results in the trial to modify the trial's course. [2010]

Raises serious questions about the ethical propriety of adaptive designs where the probability of being assigned to one treatment versus its comparator is dependent on emerging data. [2015]

Systematic review of guideline appraisal tools identifying and comparing existing tools and their relative degrees of validation. [2013]

Compilation of a comprehensive checklist of items linked to the relevant resources and tools that guideline developers should consider. [2014]

Demonstrates how observational studies may provide moderate- to (rarely) high-strength evidence in systematic reviews. [2014]

An update on and clarification of various random allocation techniques, especially simple randomization, blocking, stratified random allocation, and minimization, and a critique of non-random approaches. [2014]

Review of the strengths and weaknesses of observational versus interventional study design. [2014]

An introduction to and rationale for meta-analysis, including presentation, interpretation, and biases. [2010]

Five-part author's guide to performing systematic reviews; illustrated, with examples. [2013]

Reviews the distinct roles, occasional tensions, and relative strengths and limitations of RCTs versus population-based observational studies, proposed as complementary forms of research. [2014]

Discusses how significant results of many RCTs hinge on very few events, and suggests that reporting the number of events required to make a statistically significant result nonsignificant (the Fragility Index) in RCTs can allow for more informed decisions about the confidence warranted by reported RCT results. [2014]

Presents three practical methods for actively teaching critical appraisal skills in an evidence-based medicine curriculum. [2013]

Presentation on the use of the R statistical package in Evidence-Based Medicine, especially in Clinical Research, intended mainly for, but not limited to, Bio-statisticians, especially those using SAS.

Critical review of RCT and non-RCT studies, finding that the implementation of RCT methods and the interpretation of the results can be flawed by poor trial design, observer bias, incentive bias, or simple misinterpretation. [2013]

Details the basic steps of evidence-based practice and provides signposts to more detailed information and assistance. Compiled by the Evidence-Based Practice Group South East and the Health Service Executive of Ireland. [2014]

A review of guideline-assessing instruments, finding that alongside the comprehensive instruments such as AGREE II and DELBI, rapid-assessment instruments can be convenient tools for gaining a quick impression of the value of a guideline. [2015]

Assessment of where we stand in evidence-based medicine as of 2008.

Slide presentation given to second year medical students on the principles of evidence-based medcine. From the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University (Montreal, Canada).

Compilation of presentations on how evidence-based medicine in resource-limited settings can be translated into improved health outcomes. [2013]

Summary and critical review of hierarchies of evidence, contrasting the different current approaches and noting their limitations and merits. Chapter from "Neurology: An Evidence-Based Approach". [2012]