1. Prof. Carl Heneghan Director CEBM University of Oxford
Evidence-Based Medicine
Prof. Carl Heneghan
Director CEBM
University of Oxford

4. What is Evidence-Based Medicine?
“Evidence-based medicine is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values”
Sackett DL, Rosenberg WMC, Gray JAM, Haynes RB, Richardson WS: Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t. BMJ 1996;312:71-2.
This definition of what EBM is and isn’t has gained wide acceptance and made it easier for us to get our points across.

5. 5

6. Why do we need EBM?

9. The CAST trial revealed Excess mortality of 56/1000.
Why do we need RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS ?
In the early 1980s newly introduced antiarrhythmics were found to be highly successful at suppressing arrhythmias.
Not until a RCT was performed was it realized that, although these drugs suppressed arrhythmias, they actually increased mortality.
The CAST trial revealed Excess mortality of 56/1000.
By the time the results of this trial were published, at least 100,000 such patients had been taking these drugs.

12. • For every 1000 patients treated 65 more will be alive at 1 month if treatment is administered in the first hour – the ‘golden hour’ – after symptom onset, compared with not giving thrombolysis;
• 37 lives are saved for every 1000 patients treated in the 1–2 hour interval after symptom onset;
• 26 lives are saved for every 1000 patients treated in the 2–3 hour interval after symptom onset;
• 29 lives are saved for every 1000 patients treated in the 3–6 hour interval after symptom onset;
• 20 lives are saved for every 1000 patients treated in the 7–12 hour interval after symptom onset.

13. Allocation to antiplatelet therapy produced a highly significant reduction (P< ) of 38 per 1000 in the risk of suffering a subsequent vascular event

14. Pain relief

15. Beware of text books

16. “A 21st century clinician who cannot critically read a study is as unprepared as one who cannot take a blood pressure or examine the cardiovascular system.”
BMJ 2008:337:

17. EBM as a medical student?

18. Be aware that treatment options should be based on clinical need and the effectiveness of treatment options, and that decisions should be arrived at through assessment and discussion with the patient

19. Must be aware of their responsibility to maintain their knowledge and skills throughout there careers.
Students are expected to keep up to date and to apply knowledge necessary for good clinical care.

20. what skills will you need to keep up to date with the best evidence?
Must be aware of their responsibility to maintain their knowledge and skills throughout there careers.
Students are expected to keep up to date and to apply knowledge necessary for good clinical care.
what skills will you need to keep up to date with the best evidence?
to find the evidence more efficiently
to appraise the quality of the evidence more effectively
to use good quality evidence more systematically

21. about 1/2 of ‘valid’ evidence today is out of date in 5 years
about 1/2 of valid evidence is not implemented
ScienceCartoonsPlus.com

22. the steps of practicing EBM
1. Ask a focused question.
2. Track down the evidence
3. Critically appraise evidence for its validity, effect size, precision
4. Apply the evidence in practice:
amalgamate the valid evidence with other relevant information (values & preferences, clinical/health issues, & system issues)
implement the decision in practice
We will introduce you to these 4 steps of EBP and many of the processes you can use to help make more evidence-based decisions

23. 1. Ask a focused question.
Patient presenting with MI

24. ‘Background’ Questions
About the disorder, test, treatment, etc.
a. Root* + Verb: “What causes …”
b. Condition: “HIV?”
* Who, What, Where, When, Why,

25. Patient presenting with MI
What are the symptoms and signs of someone presenting with MI?
2. What are the diagnostic tests for MI?
3. What are the causes of MI?
4. What are the treatments of MI?

28. Know your background

29. Compared to placebo Patient presenting with MI Foreground’ Questions
About actual patient care decisions and actions
For treatment
4 (or 3) components:
In Patients with a MI
Does (I) cholesterol lowering therapy
Compared to placebo
reduce mortality (O)

30. During the scheduled treatment period, there were 3832 (8·5%) deaths among the 45 054 participants allocated a statin compared with 4354 (9·7%) among the 45 002 controls. This difference represents a 12% proportional reduction in all-cause mortality per mmol/L LDL cholesterol reduction (RR 0·88, 95% CI 0·84–0·91; p<0·0001; figure 1).

31. Secondary Prevention
Long-term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischemic Disease (LIPID) Study
9,014 patients with a history of MI or hospitalization for unstable angina randomized to pravastatin (40 mg) or placebo for 6.1 years
Statins provide significant benefit across a broad range of cholesterol levels
24% RRR 9
8.3
6.4
CHD Death (%) 6
The LIPID study sought to evaluate the effect of statins in secondary prevention among those with a broad range of cholesterol levels. Patients with a history of known coronary artery disease were randomized to pravastatin (40 mg) or placebo over a mean of 6.1 years. Patients receiving pravastatin experienced a significant 24% relative risk reduction in coronary heart disease mortality, with no clinically significant adverse effects. 3
P<0.001
Placebo
Pravastatin
CHD=Coronary heart disease, MI=Myocardial infarction, RRR=Relative risk reduction
LIPID Study Group. NEJM 1998;339:1349–1357

32. Patient presenting with MI
1. How common is the problem
Prevalence
2. Is early detection worthwhile
Screening
3. Is the diagnostic test accurate
Diagnosis
4. What will happen if we do nothing
Prognosis
5. Does this intervention help
Treatment
6. What are the common harms of an intervention
7. What are the rare harms of an intervention

34. Size of Medical Knowledge
NLM MetaThesaurus
875,255 concepts
2.14 million concept names
Diagnosis Pro
11,000 diseases
30,000 abnormalities (symptoms, signs, lab, X-ray,)
3,200 drugs (cf FDAs 18,283 products)
1 disease per day for 30 years
To cover the vast field of medicine in four years is an impossible task.
- William Olser

35. why do we need to use evidence efficiently?
PRESENTATION ONE
6/04/2017
why do we need to use evidence efficiently?
5,000?
per day
2,000 per day
75 per day
Articles Per Year
so why do we need to use the evidence more efficiently today? Because there is an epidemic of evidence we need to keep up with and we cannot do this without new skills
EBP: informing decisions with the best up-to-date evidence
Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice

36. Median minutes/week spent reading about my patients
Self-reports at 17 Grand Rounds:
Medical Students: minutes
House Officers (PGY1): 0 (up to 70%=none)
SHOs (PGY2-4): 20 (up to 15%=none)
Registrars: (up to 40%=none)
Sr. Registrars (up to 15%=none)
Consultants:
Grad. Post 1975: 45 (up to 30%=none)
Grad. Pre : 30 (up to 40%=none)
This summarises the data from about 12 DGH’s around the England and Scotland.
In summary, HO’s (who don’t read at all) are being taught by old farts (who read 30 minutes a week). 36

37. clinical evidence increasing so rapidly we need better skills to keep up-to-date more efficiently than previous generations of clinicians
the figure on this slide illustrates the modern epidemic of evidence. The solid blue line shows the growth in number of published randomised controlled trials and you can see the dramatic increase in trials - with more than 5 times as many published today than in the 1980s. So its not surprising that we need to be far more efficient in keepoing up to date with the evidence today than we did years ago. and Given that many of today's health professionals did most of their training more than 30 years ago, there is a lot of upskilling needed.
as an aside ...I was running an EBP workshop in Iran a few years ago and I had made a statement that one couldn't be a quality practitioner without EBP skills. An elderly physician near the front of the room put up his hand and said that this was his first EBP workshop so did that mean that for most of his practicing life he had been a poor quality doctor. My response was that for most of his practicing life, he could probably have kept up with the evidence without any specific EBP skills because there wasn't a lot of good clinical epidemiological evidence around but that was now changing rapidly and so he now needed these skills.
more efficiently
Bastian, Glasziou, Chalmers PLoS 2010 Vol 7 | Issue 9 | e 37

38. the steps of practicing EBM
1. ask a focused question.
2. Track down the evidence
3. Critically appraise evidence for its validity, effect size, precision
4. apply the evidence in practice:
a. amalgamate the valid evidence with other relevant information (values & preferences, clinical/health issues, & system issues) and make an evidence-based decision; and
b. implement the decision in practice
We will introduce you to these 4 steps of EBP and many of the processes you can use to help make more evidence-based decisions

42. the steps of practicing EBM
1. Ask a focused question.
2. Track down the evidence
3. Critically appraise evidence for its validity, effect size, precision
(NEXT month)
4. Apply the evidence in practice:
amalgamate the valid evidence with other relevant information (values & preferences, clinical/health issues, & system issues)
implement the decision in practice
We will introduce you to these 4 steps of EBP and many of the processes you can use to help make more evidence-based decisions

43. In the next 4 weeks Try to ask for one patient you have seen:
What causes the disease?
How was the disease diagnosed?
How was the patient treated?
What is the natural history of the disease?
Consider formulating a PICO
And try to find some evidence