To learn more about the various trials, studies, reviews and reports used in the application of Evidenced-Based Practice (EBP), view the articles listed below.
Controlled Clinical Trials
Refers to a study that compares one or more intervention groups to one or more comparison (control) groups. View definition.
View articles on controlled clinical trials
Cohort Studies
In a Cohort Study patients with a certain condition and/or who receive a particular treatment are followed over time and compared with patients who do not have a condition or receive treatment under investigation
View articles on cohort studies
Case-Control Studies
In case control studies, patients with a known established condition are compared to those who do not have that condition
View articles on case-control studies
Meta-analysis/Systematic Reviews
A systematic review is an overview of primary studies that used explicit and reproducible methods.
A meta-analysis is a mathematical synthesis of the results of two or more primary studies that addressed the same hypothesis in the same way.
View articles on meta-analysis/systematic reviews
- Trisha Greenhalgh. How to read a paper: Papers that summarize other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analysis). BMJ. 1997;315:672-675.
- TR Einarson, JS Leeder, and G Koren. A method for meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies. Drug Intelligence & Clinical Pharmacy; 22(10):813-824.
- Egger M. Meta-Analysis: principles and procedure. BMJ. 1997;315:1533-1537.
- Sandelowski M, et al. Using qualitative metasummary to synthesize qualitative and quantitative descriptive findings. Res Nurs Health. 2007;30(1):99-111.
- Westwood M., Whiting P., and Kleijnen J. How does study quality affect the results of a diagnostic meta-analysis? BMC Med Res Methodol. 2005 Jun 8;5(1):20.
- Cook D., et al. Systematic Reviews: Synthesis of Best Evidence for Clinical Decisions. Ann Intern Med, 1997;126 (5):376-380
- Mark P. Okamoto. Systematic Reviews: Synthesis of Best Evidence for Health Care Decisions. Am. J. Health Syst. Pharm., 1998; 55: 2578 - 2580.
- Santaguida PL, Helfand M, Raina P. Challenges in systematic reviews that evaluate drug efficacy or effectiveness. Ann Intern Med. 2005;142(12 Pt 2):1066-72.
- Koretz R. Methods of meta-analysis: an analysis. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2002 Sep;5(5):467-74.
- Freemantle N., et al. Deriving treatment recommendations from evidence within randomized trials. The role and limitation of meta-analysis. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 1999;15(2):304-15.
- Needleman I. A guide to systematic reviews. J Clin Periodontol. 2002;29 Suppl 3:6-9; discussion 37-8.
- Magarey J. Elements of a systematic review. Int J Nurs Pract. 2001 Dec;7(6):376-82
Patient Case Reports
Henry Cohen. How to write a patient case report. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy; 63(19):1888-1892.
View articles on patient case reports
- Mortimer J., Borenstein A. Tools of the epidemiologist. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2006 Jul-Sep;20(3 Suppl 2):S35-41.
- Marc Levine. Design and Analysis of Clinical Trials: Concepts and Methodologies, 2nd Edition. Ann. Pharmacother. 2004; 38: 1548 - 1549.
- Diomidus M. Epidemiological study designs. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2002;65:126-35.
- Peipert J.F,Gifford D, Boardman L. Research Design and Methods of Quantitative Synthesis of Medical Evidence - A decision analysis. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 1997;90(3): 473-478.
- Carney p., et al. Educational epidemiology: applying population-based design and analytic approaches to study medical education. JAMA. 2004;292(9):1044-50.
- Grimes D., Schulz K. An overview of clinical research: the lay of the land. Lancet. 2002;359(9300):57-61.
- McMahon AD. Design issues for drug epidemiology. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2000 Nov;50(5):419-25.
- Enarson D., et al. Choosing a research study design and selecting a population to study. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2004;8(9):1151-6.
- Bombardier C., Research challenges: overview of epidemiological study designs. J Rheumatol Suppl. 1988 Oct;17:5-8.
- Etminan M. Pharmacoepidemiology I: a review of pharmacoepidemiologic study designs. Pharmacotherapy. 2004;24(8):964-9.
- Etminan M., et al. Challenges and opportunities for pharmacoepidemiology in drug-therapy decision making. J Clin Pharmacol. 2006;46(1):6-9
- Cody R, Slack M. Crossover design in pharmacy research. Ann Pharmacother. 1992;26: 327-33.
Classifications of Evidence
There are many different classification systems used as helpful tools to evaluate quality of evidence. Most often either a letter or a roman numeral designates a grade.
View articles on classification of evidence