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Tables of Contents for How to Read a Paper
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Foreword
xi
Professor Sir David Weatherall
Preface: Do you need to read this book?
xv
Acknowledgements
xvii
Why read papers at all?
1
12
Does ``evidence based medicine'' simply mean ``reading medical papers''?
1
2
Why do people often groan when you mention evidence based medicine?
3
5
Before you start: formulate the problem
8
5
Searching the literature
13
21
Reading medical articles
13
1
The Medline database
14
20
You are trying to find a particular paper that you know exists
15
5
You want to answer a very specific clinical question
20
2
You want to get general information quickly about a well defined topic
22
3
Your search gives you lots of irrelevant articles
25
1
Your search gives you no articles at all or not as many as you expected
26
3
You don't know where to start searching
29
1
Your attempt to limit a set leads to loss of important articles but does not exclude those of low methological quality
29
1
Medline hasn't helped, despite a through search
30
4
Getting your bearings (what is this paper about?)
34
19
The science of ``trashing'' papers
34
2
Three preliminary questions to get your bearings
36
5
Randomised controlled trials
41
4
Cohort studies
45
1
Case-control studies
46
1
Cross sectional surveys
47
1
Case reports
48
1
The traditional hierarchy of evidence
48
1
A note on ethical considerations
49
4
Assessing methodological quality
53
16
Was the study original?
53
1
Who is the study about?
54
2
Was the design of the study sensible?
56
2
Was systematic bias avoided or minimised?
58
4
Was assessment ``blind''?
62
1
Were preliminary statistical questions dealt with?
63
3
Summing up
66
3
Statics for the non-statistician
69
18
How can non-statisticians evaluate statistical tests?
69
2
Have the author set the scene correctly?
71
5
Paired data, tails, and outliers
76
2
Correlation, regression and causation
78
2
Probability and confidence
80
3
The bottom line (quantifying the risk of benefit and harm)
83
2
Summary
85
2
Papers that report drug trials
87
10
``Evidence'' and marketing
87
2
Making decisions about treatment
89
1
Surrogate end points
90
4
How to get evidence out of a ``drug rep''
94
3
Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests
97
14
Ten men in the dock
97
1
Validating diagnostic tests against a gold standard
98
4
Ten questions to ask about a paper that claims to validate a diagnostic or screening test
102
6
A note on likelihood ratios
108
3
Papers that summarise other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analyses)
111
17
When is a review systematic?
111
3
Evaluating systematic reviews
114
5
Meta-analysis for the non-statistician
119
4
Explaining heterogeneity
123
5
Papers that tell you what to do (guidelines)
128
10
The great guidelines debate
128
2
Do guidelines change clinicians' behaviour?
130
2
Questions to ask about a set of published guidelines
132
6
Papers that tell you what things cost (economic analyses)
138
13
What is economic analysis?
138
2
Measuring the costs and benefits of health interventions
140
5
Questions to ask about an economic analysis
145
4
Conclusion
149
2
Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research)
151
12
What is qualitative research?
151
4
Evaluating papers that describe qualitative research
155
6
Conclusion
161
2
Implementing evidence based findings
163
14
Surfactants v steroid: a case study in adopting evidence based practice
163
3
Changing the behaviour of health professiols
166
3
Introducing change in organisations
169
2
Implementing evidence based practice in health authorities and trusts
171
1
Priorities for further research on the implementation process
172
5
Appendix A: Checklists for finding, appraising, and implementing evidence
177
10
Appendix B: Evidence based quality filters for everyday use
187
2
Appendix C: Maximally sensitive search strings for research use (to be used mainly for research)
189
2
Appendix D: Assessing the effects of an intervention
191
1
Index
192