How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-based Medicine and HealthcareRequired reading in many medical and healthcare institutions, How to Read a Paper is a clear and wide-ranging introduction to evidence-based medicine and healthcare, helping readers to understand its central principles, critically evaluate published data, and implement the results in practical settings. Author Trisha Greenhalgh guides readers through each fundamental step of inquiry, from searching the literature to assessing methodological quality and appraising statistics. How to Read a Paper addresses the common criticisms of evidence-based healthcare, dispelling many of its myths and misconceptions, while providing a pragmatic framework for testing the validity of healthcare literature. Now in its sixth edition, this informative text includes new and expanded discussions of study bias, political interference in published reports, medical statistics, big data and more.
How to Read a Paper is an ideal resource for healthcare students, practitioners and anyone seeking an accessible introduction to evidence-based healthcare. |
Contents
Why do people sometimes groan when | 4 |
formulate the problem | 10 |
Randomised controlled trials | 35 |
Crosssectional surveys | 41 |
4 | 45 |
Was the design of the study sensible? | 47 |
11 | 52 |
Was assessment blind? | 53 |
Exercises based on this chapter | 147 |
A note on Choosing Wisely | 157 |
Papers that go beyond numbers qualitative research | 165 |
Conclusions | 176 |
13 | 179 |
Conclusions | 188 |
14 | 191 |
Conclusions | 200 |
Exercises based on this chapter | 59 |
Paired data tails and outliers | 69 |
The bottom line | 75 |
Making decisions about therapy | 82 |
Exercises based on this chapter | 89 |
Papers that report trials of complex interventions | 92 |
Exercises based on this chapter | 99 |
Ten questions to ask about a paper that claims to validate | 107 |
Clinical prediction rules | 113 |
Evaluating systematic reviews 120 X | 120 |
Explaining heterogeneity | 130 |
Papers that tell you what to do guidelines | 137 |