Evidence Based Practice and Programs for clinicians is the systematic application of scientific findings and knowledge to clinical practice or clinical decision making. For example, it means that a clinician is using evidence to choose diagnostic tests with the greatest reliability and interventions that have been shown to be effective.
General Evidence-Based Practice Resources
The following are links to other organizations that are good resources to find information regarding Evidence-Based Practice.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ, United States):
www.ahrq.gov
Bandolier (United Kingdom):
www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier
BMJ Evidence Centre (United Kingdom):
http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/x/index.html
Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM, United Kingdom):
www.cebm.net
Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy (Australia):
www.physiotherapychoices.org.au
Centre for Health Evidence (Canada):
www.cche.net
Center for Reviews and Dissemination (University of York):
www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/index.htm
Cochrane Collaboration (International):
www.cochrane.org
Evidence-Based Medicine Toolkit (Canada):
www.ebm.med.ualberta.ca
Health Evidence Network, World Health Organization (WHO, Europe):
www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/data-and-evidence/health-evidence-network-hen
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (United States):
www.iom.edu
KT Clearing House (Canada):
http://ktclearinghouse.ca/cebm/
JAMA Evidence (United States):
www.jamaevidence.com
National Library of Medicine (United States):
www.nlm.nih.gov
Physiotherapy Evidence Database (Australia):
www.pedro.org.au
GENERAL EVIDENCE-BASED PROGRAMS
Learn about evidence-based programs that are proven to improve the quality of life of people with arthritis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Arthritis Program has created a list of recommended self-management education and physical activity programs.
To obtain program descriptions and information about how to locate the programs in your state, click here.
Additional programs available:
Consolidated Sources of Evidence
Systematic Reviews: A systematic review is a synthesis of the primary studies that uses explicit and reproducible methods to review the literature. Thus, they consolidate the data from many studies on the same topic in an attempt to more clearly answer a research question.
The following sites have databases which contain systematic reviews. Some may require subscription to access.
EPC Evidence Reports (AHRQ):
www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcindex.htm
The Cochrane Library:
www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/index.html
VA Evidence-Based Synthesis Program:
www.hsrd.research.va.gov/publications/esp/
Clinical Practice Guidelines: Guidelines for practice are prepared and published by various associations, groups and agencies with the goal of improving healthcare by providing practitioners with a consolidation of evidence related to a particular topic to guide clinical decision making or define best practice.
National Guideline Clearinghouse (AHRQ):
www.guideline.gov
Clinical Practice Guidelines (AHRQ):
www.ahrq.gov/clinic/cpgsix.htm
American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Practice Guidelines:
www.rheumatology.org/practice/clinical/guidelines/index.asp
Evaluating the Evidence
Levels of Evidence/Strength of Evidence:
There are many organizations that have developed systems for defining and describing levels of evidence or systematic approaches for evaluating research. It is not our intent to repeat that activity, but identify resources available for practicing clinicians. We do not sanction one over the other, nor do we imply that these are the only sites available from which to gather this information.
Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine:
www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1025
Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) Scale:
www.pedro.org.au/english/downloads/pedro-scale/
OT Seeker
www.otseeker.com
Cochrane Collaboration– Critical Appraisal of Qualitative Research:
http://cqrmg.cochrane.org/
Critically Appraised Topics (CATs) are a systematic way of approaching and answering a clinical question.
Useful resources and tools for doing your own CATs
CATmaker at Centre for Evidence Based Medicine:
www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1022
McMaster University Evidence-based Practice Resources:
http://hsl.mcmaster.ca/resources/topic/eb/
Additional resources for assisting at various steps in the process of conducting Critically Appraised Topics (CATs)
Defining the question (PICO):
www.nice.org.uk/media/5F5/09/The_guidelines_manual_2009_-_Chapter_4_Developing_review_questions.pdf
KT Clearing House – Defining the question:
http://ktclearinghouse.ca/cebm/practise/ca/prognosis/validity1
Searching the literature through PubMed
Searching the Medline Database of the National Library of Medicine:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed
For help navigating, use the tutorials at:
www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial
Central-Database with free digital archive of biomedical literature:
www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov
Interpreting the evidence
NIH Medline Plus:
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/all_easytoread.html
Guides for evaluating systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines
Evidence Based Medicine Tool Kit:
www.ebm.med.ualberta.ca/ebm.html
KT Clearing House:
http://ktclearinghouse.ca/cebm/practise/ca
The AGREE Instrument for Guideline Evaluation:
www.agreecollaboration.org
JAMA Evidence- Guides for evaluating primary articles by type:
www.jamaevidence.com
Credits
ARHP Research Committee has reviewed and updated portions of this document in September 2012. For questions or comments, contact ARHP@rheumatology.org.
