Center of Evidence Based Medicine: Study Designs
According the Center of Evidence Based Medicine study designs include:
- A defined population (P) from which groups of subjects are studied
- Outcomes (O) that are measured
Experimental and analytic observational studies also include
- Interventions (I) or exposures (E) that are applied to different groups of subjects
Click here: CEBM to go to a description of each research study type, their strengths and weaknesses
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What is PICO?
PICO is a mnemonic used to aide the clinician or researcher in identifying the important parts of a well-defined clinical question. This question then provides the basis for a search of medical literature on the question topic.
Elements of a Clinical Question
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Types of Possible Questions in Relation to PICO
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Literature Searching: What and Why?
Literature searching is the systematic review of published articles, data, books and reviews. Sometimes referred to as "evidence", this process is carried out with the intention of supporting or disproving a query.
Evidence based practice (EBP) includes literature searching in response to identified clinical or practice based questions.
It is important that researchers understand the characteristics of the databases within which they are searching.
Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles and quality research manuscripts can be found in databases organized and indexed using biomedical terminology and medical subject headings [MeSH].
National Library of Medicine Videos
The following set of videos, designed specifically for nurses, provides an introduction to searching literature in PubMed. Click on the icon below for a live link:
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Click on the icon above to access a quick reference for searching in PubMed with MeSH
CINAHL Searching Tutorial
Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklists
is an international not-for-profit, research and development center within the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Renown for quality evidence based research and protocols, JBI offers critical appraisal checklists as tools for researchers.
Using boolean operators to connect search terms
Image credit: Dr.Samir Haffar slide deck; https://www.slideshare.net/shaffar75/how-to-search-the-medical-literature-on-the-net
Things to Consider
The Center for Evidence Based Managment (CEBMa) recommends that researchers consider the following questions in regard to published research and evidence. The process of evaluating evidence is known as critical appraisal.
1. Is the evidence from a known, reputable source?
2. Has the evidence been evaluated in any way? If so, how and by whom?
3. How up-to-date is the evidence?
CEBMa offers tools to help appraise research studies in the form of Critical Appraisal Checklists; you can set up a free account to access these resources.