4. ETATMBA Module 5
Pre-Requisites
• Questioning
– The Knowledge Gap
– Honesty
– Humility
– Discerning
• What is merely custom and
practice?
• Desire for Improvement
5. ETATMBA Module 5
Our Aims
• Understand EBM
– What is it?
– Why do we need it?
– What are the benefits?
– Who benefits?
6. ETATMBA Module 5
Our Objectives
The key steps:
– Formulate a clinical question
– Search the literature
• Efficiently
• Confidently
– Appraise the evidence
– Apply the evidence
8. ETATMBA Module 5
Good Clinical Practice
• Knowledge from best external evidence
based on clinical research
• Judgement from experience.
• Understanding of patient's beliefs &
preferences.
Sackett 1996
10. ETATMBA Module 5
Evidence Based Medicine
Conscientious, explicit and judicious
use of current best evidence in
making decisions about the care of
an individual patient
Sackett. BMJ 1996;312:311-2
11. ETATMBA Module 5
EBM for the Clinician
• Knowledge & Skills
• Proficiency
– Application
– PRACTICE
– Confidence
12. ETATMBA Module 5
The 5 Steps Towards
Evidence Based Practice
1. Ask the right clinical question:
Formulate a searchable question
2. Collect the most relevant publications:
Efficient Literature Searching
Select the appropriate & relevant studies
3. Critically appraise and synthesize the evidence.
4. Integrate best evidence with personal clinical expertise, patient
preferences and values:
Applying the result to your clinical practice and patient.
5. Evaluate the practice decision or change:
Evaluating the outcomes of the applied evidence in your
practice or patient.
14. Patient presentation
knowledge about diagnosis
Testing
•History
•Examination
•Investigations
Diagnosis
knowledge about prognosis
Therapy
•Changes prognosis
knowledge about therapeutic effectiveness
Clinical outcome
Etiology
knowledge about causation
Research evidence sought from
literature searches
Clinical Process and knowledge
requirements
Etiognostic Research
Diagnostic Research
Prognostic Research
Therapy Research
15. ETATMBA Module 5
•A good answerable question will help us focus
on evidence that is relevant to a patient’s clinical
needs, (or your own knowledge needs).
•They can suggest high yield search strategies
•They can suggest the forms that useful answers
might take (i.e. what is best research design to
answer our question)
The Question - Why is it so
Important?
16. ETATMBA Module 5
• There is no right or wrong way to turn a
scenario/knowledge need into a question.
• Just make sure it is concise, clinical and uses
appropriate language (avoid colloquialism, in
favour of technical language).
• Ask one question at a time.
Formulating Clinical
Questions
25. Quality of a Study
The confidence that the study design,
conduct and analysis has minimized
biases in addressing the research
question
The better the quality, the higher is the
likelihood that the results produced in
the study are credible
26. Validity
– The degree to which the results of an observation are correct
for the patients being studied.
Bias
– A process that tends to produce results that depart
systematically from the true values existing in the study
population.
Fletcher et al, 1988; Murphy, 1976
Quality of a Study
32. ETATMBA Module 5
AT-A-GLANCE
• Acronym
• Title
• Aim
• Groups
• Limbs – Intervention v Comparator
• Absolute Risk Reduction
• Number Needed to Treat (NNT)
• Clinical Conclusion
• Education for patients/carers
33. AT-A-GLANCE
• Acronym: is there a study name? as a mnemonic
• Title: Full title, authors, institute, journal, full reference
• Aim: specific aim of the study and why, what outcomes were used?
• Groups: who were the research subjects, inclusion criteria, exclusion
criteria, who excluded by chance or bias
• Limbs – Intervention v Comparator, ? Versus placebo, ? Blinded, how
randomised,
• Absolute Risk Reduction: What the main results?, what the main
results on the outcomes studied, other main results, ? Side-effects, other
harm events
• Number Needed to Treat (NNT): How many people do you need to treat
to have one beneficial effect? Eg how many people to save a life? How
many treated to have side-effects?
• Clinical Conclusion: What are the main clinical conclusions for you and
the team? Can the results be implemented locally? ? Change in guideline
needed? ? Clinical audit needed?
• Education for patients/carers: How can you explain the results to a
patient/guardian prior to consent and explanation? State what you will
actually say eg “Research has shown that………what do you think?”
35. Levels of evidence
Level Type of evidence
I Evidence obtained from at least one randomised controlled
trial or from meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
II Evidence obtained from at least one well-designed controlled
study without randomisation
III Evidence obtained from well-designed non-experimental
descriptive studies, such as comparative studies, correlation
studies and case control studies
IV Evidence obtained from expert committee reports or
opinions and/or clinical experience of respected authorities
36. Grading of
recommendations
Grade Recommendation
A (Evidence level I)
Requires at least one randomised controlled trial as part of the body of literature of
overall good quality and consistency addressing the specific recommendation
B (Evidence levels II, III)
Requires availability of well-conducted clinical studies but not randomised clinical
trials on the topic of recommendation
C (Evidence level IV)
Requires evidence from expert committee reports or opinions and/or clinical
experience of respected authorities. Indicates absence of directly applicable studies of
good quality