02 Research Methods Flashcards
With regard to risk of benefit or harm, how are these estimates calculated for evidence based medicine and what are these derived from.
Calculated mathematically. Derived from high quality research on population samples.
What is the first step in the process of using clinical research to help your client?
Convert information needs into answerable questions - define the problem.
What is the second step in the process of using clinical research to help your client?
Find the best available evidence to answer the questions from the first step, i.e. lab testing, case history assessments, reviewing published literature.
What is the third step in the process of using clinical research to help your client?
Critically appraise and evaluate the evidence and assess it’s validity/accuracy/usefulness to the client - based on motivation, budget, product availability.
What is the forth step in the process of using clinical research to help your client?
Implement results of search into clinical practice.
What is the fifth step in the process of using clinical research to help your client?
Evaluate results (reflective practice).
What does an EBM practitioner identify in the patient when assessing them?
Their background, psychological, social and any problems accounting for the patients perspective.
How does an EBM practitioner rule out any differential diagnosis?
By performing sufficiently complex health assessment and suggests appropriate tests or referrals.
What additional things does an EBM practitioner consider when assessing their client?
Additional problems and any risk factors that also need attention.
What type of material does an EBM practitioner seek in his/her research and decision making?
Best available evidence from scientific literature.
What does the EBM practitioner critically evaluate when assessing research literature?
Evaluates strength, quality and completeness of the evidence.
In what two ways does an EBM practitioner apply found evidence?
By making sure it clinically relevant and justifiable.
With regard to the patient, what does the EBM practitioner ensure?
That they have their informed consent after discussing pro’s and con’s of various options available, in a way that they can understand.
What 10 types of research based evidence are there and list them in order starting with the best first?
- Systematic review and meta-analysis.
- Large Scale Double Blind Randomised Control Trials.
- Small Scale Double Blind Randomised Control Trials.
- Non-Randomised Control Trials.
- Cohort Studies.
- Case Control Studies.
- Cross-sectional Studies.
- Ecological Studies.
- Case Series and Case Reports.
- Expert Opinion.
What do these acronyms stand for:
FSA, WHO, IOM, SCF, FDA, WMA, BMA?
FSA - Food Standards Agency. WHO - World Health Organisation. IOM - Institute of Medicine. SCF - Scientific Committee on Food. FDA - Food and Drug Administration. WMA - World Medical Association. BMA - British Medical Association.
What type of books are we expected to use and reference when writing essays?
Good quality references based on primary research.
If using text books, then must be written aimed at academic or professional levels - not public or consumer levels.
What is a systemic review?
Statistical study that combines results of lots of similar experiments to get an overall result.
This is more reflective of a much wider study population.
What is the fundamental problem with systemic review and how does meta-analyses try to overcome this?
Combined results can be too different to interpret.
Meta-analysis try to overcome this by using statistical models that are appropriate to infer trends.
When looking at systemic review and meta-anaysis, what is the key thing to look at?
The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the studies. IF it is biased, overall results will not be representative.
What does epidemiology mean?
The ‘how and why’ of disease in different groups of people.
What are epidemiological and observational studies NOT designed to identify, but what are is their aim to answer and what are they known as and what are they not?
Not designed to identify causal relationships between exposure and outcome.
Aim is to only answer questions about trends or pattens in population groups.
Known as correlations, but does not necessarily mean causation- only experimental control studies can help prove causation.
What do epidemiological and observational studies often generate?
Ideas and questions for further experimental research.
What is an intervention study?
Subjects are given a particular medicine or intervention, and researchers measure how their health changes.
What is a control group?
A group that have not been given the intervention or medication, or have been given a placebo.
