1. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Searching the Literature

2. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Why?

3. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Why? Identify topical questions Identify weaknesses in current literature Evaluate the need for further research or how your study addresses unmet needs Systematic Reviews

4. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Aims Explain how scientific literature is organised Construct a sensitive and specific systematic search strategy Describe how to rigorously assess the quality of a scientific paper

5. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England How literature is arranged Unpublished Published

6. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England How literature is arranged Non- Indexed MEDLINE EMBASE Published =

7. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Searching Happens through ‘clients’ OvidSP (paid) PubMed (free)- just MEDLINE Google Scholar (gives other stuff)

8. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Three Search Scenarios Too much Too little Just right

9. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Searching

10. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England “Systematicity”

11. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Steroids for prematurity!

12. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England “Systematicity” Reduces likelihood of missed evidence Missed evidence may lead to bias Missed evidence may help inform your study

13. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Systematic Searches Sensitive- identify useful articles Specific- exclude the rubbish ones

14. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England

15. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Digestive System Biliary TreePancreasLiver Gastrointestinal Tract EMBASE MEDLINE

16. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Exploding Digestive System Biliary TreePancreasLiver Gastrointestinal Tract

17. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Step 1- Define topic Use PICOS! Example: Population: Adults with acute appendicitis Intervention: Laparoscopic Appendicectomy Comparison: Versus Open Outcomes: Wound Infection Study Design: All studies

18. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Step 2- Think about Americans Americans can’t spell Wildcards * or $ Appendectomy vs. Appendicectomy Append$: -icitis -icectomy -ectomy

19. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Step 3- MeSH it ‘Appendicitis’ ‘Laparoscopy’ ‘Wound Infection’

20. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Step 4- Bring it all together Operators: AND, OR, NOT Appendicitis AND Laparoscopy AND Wound Infection

21. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Success! 16,000+ to 233

22. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Success! Other more advanced options

23. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Quality?

24. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Aims of appraisal Identify sources of bias Assess how well study was conducted Determine whether sources of bias significantly influenced the outcome Determine whether the conclusions of the study are clinically applicable (externally valid)

25. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England How to appraise literature Many points to consider! Books have been written. Lots of good checklists available from Cochrane, The Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) and “CASP”

26. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Sources of Bias Selection Performance Observer Attrition Reporting

27. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England The CASP checklist

28. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England The CASP checklist 11 key points. Is there a clear question? Randomised allocation? Who was blinded? Similar groups?

29. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England The CASP checklist Equal treatment in all arms? Were all patients who started the trial accounted for at the end of the trial? Size of treatment effect Precision of treatment effect Are the results generalizable?

30. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England Summary Literature searches are invaluable in forming good research questions Systematic searches maximise the likelihood of finding relevant studies Designing a sensitive and specific search strategy is key Critically appraising literature is important to enable weaknesses to be identified and clear, topical questions to be formulated

31. Protocol Launch Meeting and Research Skills Course September 16 th 2015, RCS England ?