What is Evidence-Based Medicine?


Masic, I., Miokovic, M., & Muhamedagic, B. (2008). Evidence based medicine – new approaches and challenges. Acta informatica medica : AIM : Journal of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia & Herzegovina, 16(4), 219-225. https://doi.org/10.5455/aim.2008.16.219-225

Check out this Pubmed PICO Guideline!

Critical Appraisal

“Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically assessing the outcome of scientific research (evidence) to judge its trustworthiness, value and relevance in a particular context. Critical Appraisal looks at the way a study is conducted and examines factors such as internal validity, generalizability and relevance.”

Here are some free Critical Appraisals Skills Programme (CASP) forms to help you critically appraise various study types:

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EBM Research Methods

Finding PubMed Clinical Queries

Hierarchy of Evidence

Meta-Analysis: “. . . a statistical procedure that integrates the results of several independent studies, [and] plays a central role in evidence-based medicine” (Haidich, 2010).
Systematic Reviews: “. . . involve a detailed and comprehensive plan and search strategy derived a priori, with the goal of reducing bias by identifying, appraising, and synthesizing all relevant studies on a particular topic” (Uman, 2011).
Critically Appraised Topic: “CATs are short summaries of the most up-to-date, high-quality available evidence . . . found using thorough structured methods” (Callander, et. al., 2017).
Randomized Controlled Trials: “. . . the best way to study the safety and efficacy of new treatments” (Kabisch, et. al., 2011).
Cohort Studies: “. . . a group of people with defined characteristics who are followed up to determine incidence of, or mortality from, some specific disease” (Song & Chung, 2010).
Case-Controlled Studies/Case Series: “. . . Identify subject by outcome status as the outset of the investigation. . . . Data about exposure to a risk fact . . . [is] then collected retrospectively” (Song & Chung, 2010).

Works Cited

  • Callander, J., Anstey, A. V., Ingram, J. R., Limpens, J., Flohr, C., & Spuls, P. I. (2017). How to write a Critically Appraised Topic: Evidence to underpin routine clinical practice. The British Journal of Dermatology, 177(4), 1007–1013. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.15873
  • Haidich, A. B. (2010). Meta-analysis in medical research. Hippokratia, 14(Suppl 1), 29–37.
  • Kabisch, M., Ruckes, C., Seibert-Grafe, M., & Blettner, M. (2011). Randomized controlled trials: Part 17 of a series on evaluation of scientific publications. Deutsches Arzteblatt International, 108(39), 663–668. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2011.0663
  • Song, J. W., & Chung, K. C. (2010). Observational studies: Cohort and case-control studies. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 126(6), 2234–2242. https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0b013e3181f44abc
  • Uman, L. S. (2011). Systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 20(1), 57–59.