Evidence-based Practice
Evidence-based practice, also called Evidence-Based Medicine, is a systematic process of appraising and using current research findings. It is a step-by-step process that includes formulating a clear clinical question of patient needs, searching the current literature, evaluating the literature and deciding which studies are valid and useful to the patient, applying the findings to the patient's care, and then evaluating the outcome.
Evidence Hierarchy
The evidence hierarchy pyramid is a visual representation of the strength of different research study designs. It can be helpful to think about evidence as a pyramid – not all study designs and resource types are created equal.
![Pyramid illustration of types of evidence. The base of the pyramid is background information and expert opinion. The next three levels are defined as unfiltered information. They include, moving up the pyramid, case-controlled studies, case series, and reports. The next three levels, moving up to the peak of the pyramid, are defined as filtered information. Moving up, the layers are critically-appraised individual articles and article synopses, critically-appraised topics or evidence syntheses and guidelines, and finally, at the peak, systematic reviews](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/22387/images/ebmpyramid.jpg)
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Systematic Reviews
A systematic review focuses on a single question and tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high-quality research evidence relevant to that question. It often uses the same techniques as the meta-analysis to combine valid research studies. The seven steps for preparing a systematic review as outlined by the Cochrane Handbook are: formulating the problem, locating & selecting studies, critical appraisal of the studies, collecting data, analyzing & presenting results, interpreting the results, improving & updating the systematic review.
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