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Preparation for DRC 21 April 2004

On 21 April in Swindon we will be covering critical appraisal skills.

Those in their first term on the course will be working with Bill and Kinnary.

Those more experienced in critical appraisal or in their second term will be appraising qualitative research and systematic reviews in a master class with Jane and Martyn.

It is really important that you read through and try to appraise the papers before the teaching session. There won't be time to do it on the day.

"Basics" Group

One paper for critical appraisal next week was given out on Wednesday. Contact another first-termer for a copy if you weren't at DRC to pick one up.

The second paper is: Stepping down inhaled corticosteroids in asthma BMJ 2003:326:1115; click here to download the paper.

"Masterclass" Group

Second-termers: Martyn and Jane will be looking at how to critically appraise systematic reviews and qualitative research.

Systematic Reviews

First of all download the CASP appraisal tool for Systematic Reviews. It will give you 10 questions to help you make sense of reviews.

http://www.phru.nhs.uk/casp/reviews.pdf

Now get BMJ 2004;328:680 (20 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7441.680. Interventions for the prevention of falls in older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials; Chang J, Morton S.

You can download it as a PDF file: www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/328/7441/680

Use the CASP tool to appraise the paper - we'll go over it in detail in the teaching session.

Qualitative Research

First read Michael's Guide to Qualitative Research.

Now download the CASP appraisal tool for Qualitative Research. This gives you 10 questions to help you make sense of qualitative research.

http://www.phru.nhs.uk/casp/qualitative.pdf

The qualitative research that we will be looking at is:

Barriers to accurate diagnosis and effective management of heart failure in primary care: qualitative study, Ahmet Fuat, A Pali, S Hungin, and Jeremy James Murphy, BMJ 2003; 326: 196.

Print off and use one of these two versions:

html version: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7382/196

pdf version: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/326/7382/196

(pdf files can be slower to download but are easier to print out and read).

Again, use the CASP tool to analyse the paper.

Don't use the version that is in the paper BMJ - it is an abridged version and not detailed enough to appraise easily.

Do have a go at appraising the paper BEFORE the workshop - there won't be time to read it for the first time on the day itself.

Written by: Michael Harris

Last update: 29 August 2007

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