Residency Research Manual: Evidence Pyramid

Critical appraisal is the systematic evaluation of clinical research papers in order to establish:

1. Does this study address a clearly focused question?
2. Did the study use valid methods to address this question?
3. Are the valid results of this study important?
4. Are these valid, important results applicable to my patient or population?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, you can save yourself the trouble of reading the rest of it.

Alll worksheets are available from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Oxford, England:

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**Also called Teritiary Literature, it provides a broad overview of a topic but nothing new or original**

**Also called Primary Literature, this is the original research that has not been interpreted or condensed by others**

Limit or filter results to Case Reports or Randomized Control Trial.

Use the MeSH database in PubMed to limit by other study designs:

**Also called Secondary Literature, it summarizes and draws conclusions from the primary literature**

(use article filter: systematic reviews)