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What is NEJM Evidence? New England Journal of Medicine Evidence (NEJM Evidence) is an online journal which publishes original research and focuses on clinical trial design and decision-making. It often includes an editorial article to accompany the research article which analyses and appraises the trial design and discusses any problematic elements. This offers you the opportunity to examine research articles and develop your own critical appraisal skills. Learn more about NEJM Evidence, including a short video, from the NEJM website . Example articles Here are some example articles. Read the research then follow up with the discussion article. Original article: Wrist Splinting versus a Placebo Soft Bandage for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/EVIDoa2500261 Editorial: Policy Implications of Placebo Bandage for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/EVIDe2600038 Original article: Every Six-Month versus Single-Dose Adjuvant Zoledronate in Early Breast Can...

It is important that you check the information you find from your searches to ensure that it is good quality and is relevant to your question. The Health Library can help you. Complete our tutorials to develop the right digital skills to evaluate and critically appraise the information and articles you find. 1. Start by learning about the CRAAP checklist; watch this short video 2. Learn more about how to evaluate information on the Internet by completing our tutorial Evaluating information on the Internet 3. Learn more about Critical Appraisal Tools which will help you to critically appraise the research articles that you find More eTutorials Find all our online tutorials on the Information Skills web page on the Health Library website . More help Contact the Health Library if you need any help finding the information you need. 

 Make sure you use good quality, relevant healthcare information in your studies and work. Evaluate your search results to check that what you are using is valid, has reliable results and is relevant to your question. How can you do this? Complete our tutorials to learn about the tools that can help you. Complete our tutorials: Evaluate your search results What is the CRAAP checklist? How can it help you to select good quality information? Watch the video to find out. Evaluating information on the Internet Use this checklist for simple evaluation of information. Critical appraisal tools Get an overview of a number of tools that can help you to critically appraise the literature that you find Try it now Go straight to our Information Skills eTutorials page on the Health Library website to access all our etutorials. Need more help? Please contact the Health Library if you need any help. Check our Information Skills for Health blog for more news about our etutori...

  Critically appraised topics or CATs are short summaries of the most up-to-date evidence for a specific clinical issue. They involve: Identification of a specific focused clinical issue affecting patients A structured search strategy Critical appraisal of the search results Application of considered outcomes to a practical patient scenario CATs can provide benefits to healthcare staff by providing opportunities to: Critically appraise evidence presented Develop knowledge within a specific area Share outcomes Identify gaps in the knowledge In this BMJ blog - Promoting true evidence-based practice using critically appraised topics (CATs) (2022) by Andrew Finney (Senior Lecturer of Nursing at Keele University) – Andrew talks about the CAT group he introduced in community nursing. He describes how the Health Library is part of the process to develop a critically appraised topic. Our librarian uses her knowledge and expertise to develop and apply the search strategy. She...

 CASP - the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme - have developed a range of online courses to help you to get to grips with critical appraisal . Courses include: Introduction to critical appraisal & CASP Introduction to the critical appraisal of randomised controlled trials How to use a CASP RCT checklist Making sense of results: measures of effectiveness in RCTs RCT module bundle The courses require payment and cost varies between £6 and £45 (at time of writing). Take a look at their website for complete details of each course and information on enrolment .

The latest available training dates have been added to the Keele scheduled library training programme . Make sure your are prepared for the year ahead by developing your skills in literature searching, critical appraisal and using refworks. To reserve your place contact the Training Team or complete our form .

Once you’ve found information that matches your search criteria you need to check that it is valid and relevant for your needs. Image of checklist being ticked You can complete our etutorials or book on training to develop your evaluation and critical appraisal skills: Evaluating Information – get to grips with the CRAAP tool to help you to assess resources Finding Information on the Internet – learn more about good quality, healthcare-specific, online resources Critical Appraisal Tools – learn about the many different tools available to help you to critically appraise articles Evidence Hierarchy – learn how the evidence hierarchy can help you to identify any issues with research papers Critical Appraisal for Absolute Beginners:   Qualitative Study – book on this training course and practice critically appraising a qualitative paper Critical Appraisal for Absolute Beginners: Randomised Controlled Trial – book on this training course and practice critically ap...

Our trainers have added some more dates to the scheduled training programme. There are now more opportunities for you to book on critical appraisal training, throughout February and March. Two courses are available: one will discuss a qualitative research paper , the other an article for a randomised controlled trial . If you are a Keele nursing student preparing for your critical appraisal assignment, make sure you book your place so that you have time to practice appraising an article.

Looking for a new year’s resolution? Update your skills. Have a look at the training opportunities available at the Health Library this January, February and March. We can help you to develop your skills so that you can find the evidence to support decision-making and patient care. Our courses include opportunities to: Get help finding the right information via the Internet Learn how to conduct a literature search and use our databases to get information quickly Find high-level good quality systematic reviews and evidence summaries using the Cochrane Library and similar resources Start to develop your critical appraisal skills Get to grips with Refworks (Keele only) Our courses are free, provide lots of hands-on opportunities and are usually completed in 1 to 2 hours. Why not book online now , or contact our training team .

Do you need some help when trying to appraise the evidence that you find? There are a wide range of tools that can help you to critically appraise the articles and research that you find. They help you to ask the right questions about a paper to assess its validity, results and relevance. We have put together a list of tools that might help you in our new etutorial Critical Appraisal Tools . You will learn: What critical appraisal is What aspects of the research presented you need to think about What tools are available to help you to appraise articles

Do you know what the evidence hierarchy is? It is something that might be able to help you to appraise the evidence you find in your literature search. Our new etutorial Evidence Hierarchy will explain what it is, and includes examples of different types of study.

If you work in Occupational Therapy you might want to check out the Occupational Therapy Critically Appraised Topics (OT CATs). A CAT is a short summary of the evidence around a particular topic. It usually looks at a number of studies related to the same problem or clinical question in order to try to identify an answer to the query. On this site you can find CATS related to a number of occupational therapy based specific topics. The CAT will include a detailed description of the problem being investigated, the search strategy used, a list of the references identified, a summary of the evidence found as well as a bottom-line conclusion.

The Centre for Evidence Based Medicine offers a range of courses and tutorials to help clinicians to develop the skills to practice evidence-based medicine. It also makes available a range of tools, presentations and publications to support practitioners and the teaching of EBM. You can find a number of tools to help you with the step-by-step process: Using PICO to help you to develop a clinical question Where to look for evidence Critical Appraisal tools and worksheets Application of the results to your own situation CEBM also have a youtube channel .which includes videos of presentations and tutorials. Check out this PICO video . We also have a number of etutorials to get you started with the basics.

As you are gathering research for your topics you need to consider the quality of that research and how it applies to the question you are trying to find an answer to. Your question may relate to an assignment, dissertation, guidance development or patient care. To help you to appraise research you can use the CASP website . This is the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Here you will find resources to help you to develop your critical appraisal skills. There is a section which explains the steps you need to go through as you are carrying out your research – Find, Appraise, Act You will also find a list of Checklists relating to different types of studies such as Randomised Controlled Trials Systematic Reviews Cohort Studies Case-Control Studies Qualitative Studies Economic Evaluations Diagnostic Studies These give you a number of questions that you need to ask yourself about the articles that you are finding. Determining whether you can identify the answe...

The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) has moved web address. You can now find it at http://www.casp-uk.net/ Our web pages have been updated. For more help on Critical Appraisal see our Critical Appraisal links or attend our Rapid Critical Appraisal training session .

Feeling lost in the world of online information? Why not come along to one of the Library training sessions. A new timetable of events is now available. Many of the sessions are suitable for Keele staff/students and NHS employees alike. Please contact the Health Library for further information.