8 – Assessing all the relevant, reliable evidence
In this Chapter: Introduction (this page) Is one study ever enough? Systematic reviews of all the relevant, reliable evidence Reducing […]
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7 – Taking account of the play of chance
In this Chapter: Introduction (this page) Assessing the role that chance may have played in fair tests What does a […]
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Informed Health Choices Podcasts
Each episode includes a short story with an example of a treatment claim and a simple explanation of a Key Concept used to assess that claim
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Ebm@school – a curriculum of critical health literacy for secondary school students
A curriculum based on the concept of evidence-based medicine, which consists of six modules.
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Know Your Chances
This book has been shown in two randomized trials to improve peoples' understanding of risk in the context of health care choices.
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McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop Resources – Therapy module
This is the therapy module resources provided to the attendees at the McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop.
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McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop Resources – Systematic review module
The Systematic review module resources provided to the attendees at the McMaster Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Workshop.
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Basic statistics for clinicians: 1. Hypothesis testing
The statistical concepts of hypothesis testing and p values.
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The interpretation of clinical trials
Peter Greenberg’s 9-minute read on the interpretation of clinical trials.
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Using research evidence: a practice guide
NESTA’s guide to using research evidence to inform decisions in policy and practice.
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Critical Appraisal of Research Evidence 101
Ontario Public Health Libraries Association guide to critical appraisal of research evidence.
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Policy: twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims
This list will help non-scientists to interrogate advisers and to grasp the limitations of evidence.
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Understanding Health Research: A tool for making sense of health studies
An interactive online tool designed to help anybody to understand scientific health research evidence.
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University of Western Australia: Bias Minimisation, randomisation and blinding
University of Western Australia’s explanation of why random allocation to comparison groups and blinding (if possible) are important.
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Common pitfalls with studies and things to look out for
‘Ask for Evidence’ introduction to the need for critical appraisal of research studies.
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Sunn Skepsis
Denne portalen er ment å gi deg som pasient råd om kvalitetskriterier for helseinformasjon og tilgang til forskningsbasert informasjon.
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Dancing statistics: Explaining variance
A 5-minute film demonstrating the statistical concept of variance through dance.
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Dancing statistics: sampling & standard error
A 5-minute film demonstrating the statistical concept of sampling and standard error through dance.
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Calling Bullshit Syllabus
Carl Bergstrom's and Jevin West's nice syllabus for 'Calling Bullshit'.
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It’s just a phase
A resource explaining the differences between different trial phases.
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The Princess and the p-value
An interactive resource introducing reporting and interpretation of statistics in controlled trials.
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Explaining the mission of the AllTrials Campaign (TED talk)
Half the clinical trials of medicines we use haven’t been published. Síle Lane shows how the AllTrials Campaign is addressing this scandal.
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Building evidence into education
Ben Goldacre explains why appropriate infrastructure is need to do clinical trials of sufficient rigour and size to yield reliable results.
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The certainty of chance
Ben Goldacre reminds readers how associations may simply reflect the play of chance, and describes Deming’s illustration of this.
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The Man Who Swallowed The Pea, and Other Tall Tales
Tamara Ingamells’ lesson plan using the claim that MMR vaccination causes autism to help teenagers understand the importance of biases.
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Dragon Lesson Plan to investigate multivariate categorical data
Investigating multivariate data by sorting and organising a set of dragon cards to uncover information about the set.
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Critical appraisal
University of New South Wales Medical Statistics Tutorial 4 addresses Critical Appraisal.
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Probability and tests of statistical significance
University of New South Wales Medical Statistics Tutorial 6 addresses ‘Probability and tests of statistical significance’.
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A way to teach about systematic reviews
81 slides used by David Nunan (Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Oxford) to present ‘A way to teach about systematic reviews’.
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Detectives in the classroom
Five modules of materials for promoting epidemiology among high school students.
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Taking account of the play of chance
Differences in outcome events in treatment comparisons may reflect only the play of chance. Increased numbers of events reduces this problem
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Quantifying uncertainty in treatment comparisons
Small studies in which few outcome events occur are usually not informative and the results are sometimes seriously misleading.
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Critical appraisal of clinical trials
Slides developed by Amanda Burls for an interactive presentation covering the most important features of well controlled trials.
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How Science Works
Definitions of terms that students have to know for 'How Science Works' and associated coursework, ISAs, etc
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Generation R – The need to reduce waste in clinical research involving children
1/3, 14-min video at the launch of GenerationR, a network of young people who advise researchers.
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The Systematic Review
This blog explains what a systematic review is, the steps involved in carrying one out, and how the review should be structured.
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Making sense of results – CASP
This module introduces the key concepts required to make sense of statistical information presented in research papers.
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Avoiding biased selection from the available evidence
Systematic reviews are used to identify, evaluate and summarize all the evidence relevant to addressing a particular question.
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Preparing and maintaining systematic reviews of all the relevant evidence
Unbiased, up-to-date systematic reviews of all the relevant, reliable evidence are needed to inform practice and policy.
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Using the results of up-to-date systematic reviews of research
Trustworthy evidence from research is necessary, but not sufficient, to improve the quality of health care.
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Why comparisons must address genuine uncertainties
Too much research is done when there are no genuine uncertainties about treatment effects. This is unethical, unscientific, and wasteful.
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システマティックレビューとはなにか?
A 3-min video by Jack Nunn and The Cochrane Consumers and Communication group for people unfamiliar with the concept of systematic reviews.
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Goldilocks
Cartoon and blog about how poorly performed systematic reviews and meta-analyses may misrepresent the truth.
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Secret life of trials
The results of single comparisons of treatments can be misleading.
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Forest Plot Trilogy
Synthesising the results of similar but separate fair comparisons (meta-analysis) may help by yielding statistically more reliable estimates
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Introduction to clinical trials: lay-friendly video
This lay-friendly video introduction to clinical trials was created by the European Communication on Research Awareness Needs Project.
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Overview of study designs
11 slides and a 4-min commentary overviewing study designs for clinical research. (from Univ Mass Med School).
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Systematic Reviews
3 slides and a 4-min commentary about systematic reviews and meta-analyses (from Univ Mass Med School).
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Introduction to Critical Appraisal
30-slide introduction by Jason Curtis, to Critical Appraisal.
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Science Weekly Podcast – Ben Goldacre
A 1-hour audio interview with Ben Goldacre discussing misleading claims about research.
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Smart Health Choices: making sense of health advice
The Smart Health Choices e-book explains how to make informed health decisions.
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The basic principles of Evidence Based Medicine
A webpage explaining the foundations of systematic reviews.
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In defence of systematic reviews of small trials
An article discussing the strengths and weaknesses of systematic reviews of small trials.
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Evidence from Randomised Trials and Systematic Reviews
Dr Chris Cates' article discussing control of bias in randomised trials and explaining systematic reviews.
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Reducing the play of chance using meta-analysis
Combining data from similar studies (meta-analysis) can help to provide statistically more reliable estimates of treatment effects.
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Viva la Evidence!
A brilliant song and video by James McCormack explaining the basics of evidence-based medicine.
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Ben Goldacre talks about Bad Pharma on C-SPAN
In this 90 minute videoed lecture, Ben Goldacre talks about key issues raised in his book 'Bad Pharma'.
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What does the Cochrane logo tell us?
This video and animated slide presentation prepared by Steven Woloshin shows how the Cochrane logo was developed, and what it tells us.
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On taking a good look at ourselves
Iain Chalmers talks about failings in scientific research that lead to avoidable harm to patients and waste of resources.
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Breast cancer screening: well established but remains contentious
Since routine breast screening with mammography is well established in many countries one could well assume that mammographic screening must […]
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Aprotinin: effect on bleeding during and after surgery
Research funders, academic institutions, researchers, research ethics committees, and scientific journals are all complicit in unnecessary research. As we explained […]
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Respiratory distress in premature babies
Some research falls in between good and bad – it is plainly unnecessary. An example of such research concerns premature […]
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Psychiatric disorders
Regrettably, research is not always well done or relevant. Take the example of a distressing condition known as tardive dyskinesia. […]
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Instructions to authors to put research in context by the editors of the medical journal The Lancet
Systematic Review This section should include a description of how authors searched for all the evidence. Authors should also say […]
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Could checking the evidence first have prevented a death?
‘In a tragic situation that could have been averted, Ellen Roche, a healthy, 24-year-old volunteer in an asthma study at […]
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Science is cumulative, but scientists don’t accumulate evidence scientifically
‘Academic researchers have been talking about something called “cumulative meta-analysis” for 25 years: essentially, you run a rolling meta-analysis on […]
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The importance of systematic reviews
‘Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have become increasingly important in health care. Clinicians read them to keep up to date with […]
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Synthesizing information from research
More than a century ago, the president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Lord Rayleigh, commented on […]
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Why did you start?
‘Few principles are more fundamental to the scientific and ethical validity of clinical research than that studies should address questions […]
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Reports of new research should begin and end with systematic reviews
The report of a study [20] to assess the effects of giving steroids to people with acute traumatic brain injury […]
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Wasted resources in healthcare and research
Failure to do systematic reviews of relevant, reliable research evidence does harm even when it is not harming patients and […]
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Avoidable harm to people participating in research
Failure to assess all relevant, reliable evidence can also result in avoidable harm to people who participate in research. Researchers […]
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Avoidable harm to patients
Recommended treatments for heart attacks that had appeared in textbooks published over a period of 30 years were compared with […]
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What can happen if all the relevant, reliable evidence is not assessed?
In this section Avoidable harm to patients Avoidable harm to people participating in research Wasted resources in healthcare and research […]
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Reducing the play of chance in systematic reviews
Previously, we explained how the play of chance can be reduced by combining data from similar but separate studies – […]
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Identifying all the relevant evidence for systematic reviews
Identifying all the relevant evidence for systematic reviews – irrespective of the language or format of the relevant reports – […]
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Reducing biases in systematic reviews
Just as biases can distort individual tests of treatments and lead to false conclusions, so they can also distort reviews […]
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Systematic reviews of all the relevant, reliable evidence
Whilst it is easy to state that we should review the results of a particular alongside other relevant, reliable evidence, […]
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Is one study ever enough?
The simple answer is ‘hardly ever’. Very seldom will one fair treatment comparison yield sufficiently reliable evidence on which to […]
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Obtaining large enough numbers in fair tests of treatments
Sometimes in tests of treatments it is possible to obtain large enough numbers from research done in one or two […]
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Addressing uncertainties about the effects of treatments
Where do we go from here? Clinicians need to be able to draw on resources that provide the best current […]
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Bone marrow transplantation
However, the demise of mutilating surgery did not spell the end of the ‘more is better’ mindset – far from […]
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Evening primrose oil for eczema
Even if inadequately assessed treatments do not kill or harm, they can waste money. Eczema is a distressing skin complaint […]
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