Evidence-based Medicine Toolkit

Index 105Scottish Intercollegiate GuidelinesNetwork 10search engines 19searchingbibliographic databases 14–17internet 18–19studies for systematic reviews29textword 14, 15, 16thesaurus 14, 15, 16secondary sources of evidence 8,9–13sensitivityanalysis 70search, increasing 16test 34, 37–9SIGN 17SnNout 38–9specificitysearch, increasing 16test 34, 37–9SpPin 38–9standard error (SE) 46, 49statistical significance 45, 54structured abstracts 9, 11study designs 97–9study participants see participants,studysummaries, evidence-based 9, 11SUMSearch 18survivalcurves 48median 48percentage 48systematic reviews (SR) 27–33clinical significance 27definition 28importance of results 30–2level of evidence 94, 95precision of results 33sources 8, 9, 12–13validity 28–30test, diagnostic see diagnostic testtextword searching 14, 15, 16therapeutic studies 50–8importance of results 54–6quantifying risk of benefit/harm55–7validity 51–4therapy 5alternatives 76benefit to individual patient 71,74–5levels of evidence 94–6thesaurusexpand 17searching 14, 15, 16triangulation 63TRIP database 8, 10, 18truncation 16, 17utility 69web sitesappraising quality 19useful 85–93weighted mean differences (WMD)32wildcards 16, 17