Clinical Practice Guidelines

Instructions: 300 words

  1. Search and locate one systematic review or practice guideline in your topic of interest (Include the citation). 
  2. Evaluate the following: 
    1. The systematic review or practice guideline relies primarily on studies conducted in the last five years. 
    2. The review provides support for the importance of the study 
    3. The authors have use primary, rather than secondary sources. 
    4. Studies are critically examined and reported objectively 
    5. The systematic review or practice guideline is organized so that a logical unfolding of Ideas is apparent that supports the need for the review 
    6. The systematic review or practice guideline ends with a summary of the most important knowledge.

Critical Appraisal of Systematic Reviews: Where Do You Start?

Critical Appraisal of Systematic Reviews: Where Do You Start?

Objectives:
After the presentation the student will be able to:

1. Recognize the value of systematic reviews in clinical practice
2. Understand the methodology of Systematic Reviews
3. Applied previous knowledge to identify the parts of a systematic review.
4. Organized the steps to conduct a systematic review.
5. Appraise Systematic Reviews based on it’s validity, and applicability to practice

Systematic Reviews

A review in which evidence on a topic or research question has been systematically identified, appraised and summarised
according to predetermined criteria. Systematic reviews may incorporate metaanalysis, but don’t have to.

High-quality systematic reviews are considered the best possible sources of evidence for evaluating treatment effectiveness.

Meta-analysis A statistical technique. Summarises the results of several studies into a single estimate, giving more weight to
larger studies.

Publication bias When only studies with positive results are published, not the neutral or negative studies. If only published
studies are included in a systematic review, it may overestimate the effect of the treatment or intervention.

Critical Appraisal of Systematic Reviews: Asking the Right Questions

A critical appraisal is basically a detailed examination of published research for the purpose of making a decision about
scientific merit and, therefore, for making a decision about the use of the evidence in practice.

What is a Critical Appraisal?

Critical appraisal is also known as a research or evidence critique.
Critiquing the literature, appraising the literature, or critically evaluating the literature are phrases that refer to
a deliberate examination of a published research study and making a judgment as to the validity of its methods, importance
of the question and results, and application to practice.
A critical appraisal is basically a detailed examination of published research for the purpose of making a decision about
scientific merit.

Critical Appraisal Steps
A critical appraisal of a systematic review starts with asking questions about each of the which are
related to validity and reliability of the methods used to produce the systematic review; the meaning
and importance of the synthesized recommendations; and, finally, the ability to translate the findings
into clinical practice.

There are critical appraisal tools available to specifically appraise systematic reviews that you can find
from a variety of organizations.

DOES THIS REVIEW ADDRESS A CLEAR QUESTION?
Remember that this first set of subquestions is related to the methodological rigor of the study.

You are assessing whether the question was focused and important