| This course generally |
| About this module |
| Preparation prior to the module |
| Effective search for evidence |
| Assessment |
| Reading list |
| News |
| Online queries or comments |
| Useful tools |
| Glossary of EBP terms |
| Calculator |
| Useful links |
| Preparation before each session |
| Diagnosis |
| Search etc |
| Therapy and Harm (RCT) |
| Therapy & Harm (SR) |
| Prognosis |
| Guidelines |
| EBHC1 |
| EBHC2 |
| Implementation |
a) Remember that the main purpose is for you to give an overview of the topic, and to help others to find the necessary papers and references for their assignments. You are likely to have more much material than you can possibly cover within the time limit (i.e. 10 minutes per person for one topic, 20 minutes for one topic altogether). Just give a brief summary, and include in your one-side A4 handout references of relevant papers so that other students can look them up if they are appropriate to cite in their assignments. Stick to this time limit - otherwise we will finish very late. You are unlikely to be able to go through more than 4 - 5 overheads for any one topic per person.
b) To ensure that your presentation is not too long, you can use the timers here. Press "start" and then do your presentation in with this screen on - I will tell you when your 10 minutes is up!
N.B. To reset the timer, you must use your "refresh" or "reload" button on your browser before pressing the "start" button again.
2. If you are not sure whether your proposed clinical scenario / paper is appropriate for your assignment, or if you are not confident about any of the topics in the course, you can arrange a meeting to discuss with me.
3. This is the exercise we did on diagnosis in the last session:-
In your GP surgery, you saw a 40-year-old man with depression. From your experience, you estimated the probability of alcohol dependence in a patient presented in this way was about 10%. You performed the CAGE questionnaire and he was positive for a score of 2 or more. You took blood to measure his g-GT level and this result was normal. You searched Medline for the results of diagnostic tests. In a previous study, the CAGE questionnaire score of 2 or more has a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 60% in diagnosing alcohol dependence. Another study showed that a raised g-GT level has a 70% sensitivity and 75% specificity in diagnosing alcohol dependence. Estimate the probability that your patient has alcohol dependence, stating any assumptions you have made.
Repeat the exercise using the online EBP calculator, and compare your answer with the results you obtained from your calculation in the last session.
4. In the last session, we briefly discussed the trade-off between sensitivity and specificity of a diagnostic test depending on the cut-off point we choose. We also discuss the use of the reciever operating characteristic plots to compare diagnostic tests. This is not an essential part of the course. However, if you wish to know more about it, read
Altman DG, Bland JM. Statistics Notes: Diagnostic tests 3: receiver operating characteristic plots. BMJ 1994; 309: 188
5. If you have time, work out how you can change the font of a document (say from Times New Roman to Arial) without turning all Greek alphabets or mathematical symbols all into unintelligible squares as well! If you know the answer, post it in the discussion list (general discussion conference).
6. Suppose you are working for your assignment, you need this web site, but you cannot access it. (This might be because the UEA network is down, or because you just cannot get through.) What do you do?
Well, there is an alternative site, which is probably easier to access from outside UEA. Make a note of it now so that you can refer to it when you find the UEA site inaccessible - it will be too late if you wait until this UEA site is down. The address of this alternative site is:-
http://www.oocities.org/wp102/
Have a quick look at it now. Use this site as a backup only. You can access almost all the material you are going to need, but there are 5 disadvantages:-
- You cannot download documents or view lecture notes.
- It is updated less regularly.
- There are advertisements popping up, as it is a commercial site (usually about education matters)
- The online query form does not work - there is no point having it if the UEA site is down.
- I have taken away all the UEA logos
7. Have a look at the very last item in the effective search for evidence page and look at the database for searching Masters and Doctorate university theses.
This page is created and maintained by Wai-Ching Leung
e-mail:- wp102@yahoo.com
last modified November 2001