Introduction to Evidence Based Practice
This page provides help on evidence-based practice and links to resources to support evidence-based practice.
Constructing a question
Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy: Optimal Patient Care = Best Knowledge + Competent PractitionerCall Number: Norris Medical Library, Upper Level, QV 704 C541e 2007Review chapter 2 for help with constructing a question and finding keywords.
Assessing Guidelines
- One-page summary of AGREE for clinical useEccles MP, Grimshaw JM. Selecting, Presenting, and delivering clinical guidelines: are there any "magic bullets"? MJA 2004; 180: S52-S54.
- Agree II Instrument for assessing guidelinesAGREE Next Steps Consortium
(2009). The AGREE II Instrument
[Electronic version]. Retrieved July 25, 2017, from http://www.agreetrust.org - Example article comparing 2 diabetes guidelinesCornell S. Comparison of the diabetes gidelines from the ADA/EASD and the AACE/ACE. JAPhA. 2017;57:261-265.
An Evidence Pyramid
Evidence-Based Guidelines
Professional groups, non-profit organizations, and government agencies often develop guidelines and make them available freely on their websites. Search or browse groups that cover all health topics and areas like the World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Veterans Health Administration, or U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Use Google to find additional groups focused on your specialty area or a specific condition.
- ECRI Guidelines Trust This link opens in a new windowFind summaries of high-quality guidelines from state, federal, and international agencies. Requires free registration. Similar to National Guideline Clearinghouse.
- CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new windowPrior to searching, use the Publication Type limit of Practice Guidelines.
- Guidelines.co.uk This link opens in a new windowSummaries of guidelines and recommendations from United Kingdom governmental agencies and European and global professional groups. Includes links to full-text of guidelines. Registration is not required to access guidelines.
- National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) This link opens in a new windowGuidelines for United Kingdom (UK) National Health Services (NHS).
Evidence-Based Summaries
- UpToDate This link opens in a new windowAn evidence-based resource covering multiple medical specialties. Includes topic monographs, patient education, practice updates, drug interactions, guidelines, and medical calculators. To obtain CME, create a personal profile and log in.
- BMJ Best Practice This link opens in a new windowEvidence-based overviews of medical topics, continually updated. Includes calculators and patient handouts. Create personal account to claim CME credits.
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
- Cochrane Database of Systematic ReviewsThe Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews provides access to full-text systematic reviews.
- PubMed@USC This link opens in a new windowUse the Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis filter to limit your results to these study types.
Original Studies
- PubMed@USC This link opens in a new windowPubMed provides access to millions of citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. This version is customized for USC users to find the full-text of articles.
- Embase This link opens in a new windowEmbase provides access to over more than 29 million citations for biomedical articles and conference proceedings. This version has been customized for USC users to find the full-text of articles from library holdings.
- CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new windowMost comprehensive database of full-text for nursing & allied health journals from 1937 to present. Includes access to scholarly journal articles, dissertations, magazines, pamphlets, evidence-based care sheets, books, and research instruments.
Textbooks, handbooks, other background sources
Use these sources to find textbooks and handbooks, which supply helpful background information on a disease, condition, drug, or usual course of treatment.
- LWW Health Library- Premium Pharmacy Collection This link opens in a new windowCollection of textbooks, audio and video clips, cases, and self-assessments focused on pharmacy education.
- PharmacyLibrary This link opens in a new windowCollection of textbooks and case studies from American Pharmacists Association (APhA). Includes more clinical information than other ebook collections.
- AccessPharmacy This link opens in a new windowCollection of textbooks and data to support pharmacy education. Includes more basic sciences texts than other ebook collections.
Appraise the Evidence
These books and guides provide overviews of the EBP process as well as assistance with interpreting results provided in articles and calculating results from data presented in articles.
- Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford UniversityClick on "EBM Tools" to locate tools to assist you with each step of EBM. The Critical Appraisal section includes worksheets with guided questions to help you appraise articles, explanations and examples for calculating NNT, and calculators to assist with calculating other measures.
- Evidence-Based Medicine ToolboxThe critical appraisal worksheets provide guided questions to help you appraise articles; the EBM calculators provide assistance with calculating measures of risk and NNT.
- JAMAEvidence This link opens in a new windowThis exhaustive guide to EBM covers all steps of the process. "Learning tools" includes worksheet for critical appraisal, "education guides" provides narrative discussion of the importance of appraisal and the measures used, and "calculators" provides calculators to aid you in calculating measures of risk, NNT, and NNH.
- Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy: Optimal Patient Care = Best Knowledge + Competent PractitionerCall Number: Norris Medical Library, Upper Level, QV 704 C541e 2007This textbook provides an exhaustive overview of EBP. Most valuable for appraisal are chapter 4, a narrative discussion of statistical measures used in EBP; and chapter 5, which covers how to calculate statistical measures (including NNT and NNH) and use these in clinical decision making.
The Pharmacist's Guide to Evidence-Based Medicine for Clinical Decision MakingCall Number: Norris Medical Library, Upper Level, WB 330 B915p 2008Publication Date: 2008This textbook is brief and aimed at the practicing clinician. It includes less mathematically-focused measures of appraisal. Chapters 6 and 8 focus on developing a clinical decision based on evidence and applying this clinical decision to individual patients.
