Evidence@ Becker

National Working Group on Evidence-Based Healthcare

Will — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:08:42 +0000

An interesting site with a lot of content. Parts of the site really detail the merger between patient values and the evidence base.

Staying healthy at any age

Will — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:56:52 +0000

AHRQ’s Put Prevention Into Practice (PPIP) now features a number of tools, including evidence-based checklists geared towards the health of adults over 50, and checklists for staying healthy at any age.

Evaluating web sites

Will — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:26:11 +0000

A nice AORN Journal article outlining a scheme for evaluating the quality and credibility of health information web sites. Included are tips for assessing bias in a web site, looking for valid recommendations, and ultimately, deciding whether or not the web site will help patients. Also mentioned is the 15-item DISCERN questionnaire for evaluating the quality of written health information.

Enabling access to biomedical information

Will — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:03:48 +0000

A nice article tracing the history, development and future challenges of providing enhanced, freely-accessible information from the National Library of Medicine.

Sound scientific base?

Will — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:44:00 +0000

An interesting pair of brief editorials in the May 2008 issue of Chest about whether or not EBM has a sound scientific base.

Recent grads, minorities, women and practice guidelines

Will — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:28:34 +0000

A recent article from Health Services Research highlights something heard casually: newer graduates report a greater influence from practice guidelines.

Inflated estimates of savings from health care IT?

Will — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:38:36 +0000

Are the potential savings from robust health care IT applications overstated? The Congressional Budget Office thinks so.

Helping smokers quit

Will — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:47:12 +0000

A May 7 JAMA commentary discusses the recently revised Public Health Service clinical practice guideline Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update. A panel reviewed more than 8,700 articles on smoking cessation. The guideline details the 7 medications currently approved by the FDA for helping smokers quit, and the growing importance of counseling, especially via national “quitlines.”

Fuzzy preliminary results from England’s personal e-health record

Will — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:50:54 +0000

This editorial from BMJ details pilot efforts to roll out a personal e-health record. These records have the potential to be a good way of assessing and documenting patient preferences, one of the components in practicing EBM.

Quality of guidelines

Will — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:07:35 +0000

This commentary, and the article it references, deal with the quality of guidelines. The authors of the study have analyzed the quality of guidelines in critical care medicine, and the commentary cites key reasons why guideline acceptance and quality should concern practitioners, payers and the public.