Evidence-Based Practice Module
From:- Wai-Ching Leung and colleagues wp102@yahoo.com
Electronic search and communication

1. Ensure that you have got your ATHENS password.

2. Familiarise yourself with the various sources of information in the search page.

3. You were given the following paper in the last session:-. Whooley MA, Avins, AL, Miranda J, Browner WS. Case-finding instruments for depression: Two questions are as good as many. J Gen Intern Med 1997; 12: 439-45.

As an exercise, search for the full text online. (It is available online.) It can be searched by at least 3 methods - try out different methods 4. To practise your searching skills, try the search strategy mentioned in the case scenario and see how similar (or different) your search result is.

4. Quickly skim through the following articles (no need to study in great detail):-

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper: The Medline database. BMJ 1997; 315: 180-183.

Glanville J, Haines M, Auston I. Getting research findings into practice: Finding information on clinical effectiveness. BMJ 1998; 317: 200-203.

5. Read the paper given to you in the last session:-

Wyatt, JC. Knowledge and the internet. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2000; 93: 565-570.

Follow-up from the last session on therapy

1. In the last session, we said a recent systematic review questioned the existence of placebo effect. Read the abstract here. You can also read a summary in the BMJ news here.

2.

2. In the last session, we talked about adjusting results of treatment studies for baseline risks of our patient. Click here to see one sophisticated way of obtaining baseline risk (though admittedly such data are available only for a few diseases).

3. Have a look at the second online EBP calculator for converting CER, EER and PEER into patient's ARR and NNT. Use the problem we solved in the last session, and see whether you get the same result.

This page is created and maintained by Wai-Ching Leung
e-mail:- wp102@yahoo.com
last modified 1 February 2002