Gateways
Use the following resources for a variety of information: guidelines, research articles, systematic reviews, etc.
- PubMed Clinical Queries
This government websites providessearch strategies for finding clinical studies and systematic reviews.
- TRIP Database
This resource provides evidence for practice as well as patient education leaflets and images. Search results are sorted by evidence based synopses, clinical questions, systematic reviews, guidelines, core primary research, textbooks, clinical calculators and MEDLINE articles. The MEDLINE articles can be limited by medical specialty. This database identifies the synonyms used in addition to your search terms.
Guidelines
Use the following resources to find practice guidelines based on articles with a high level of evidence and endorsed by a group of individuals considered authorities in the field.
- National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of eight agencies that compose the Public Health Service (PHS) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). NCI coordinates the National Cancer Program, which conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to the cause, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, and the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients. NCI provides up-to-date cancer information for health professionals based on an analysis of the evidence in the journal literature. Select a particular cancer from the list of categories or from the alphabetical list. Click health professionals under the Treatment or Screening/Testing sections for each cancer. Treatment options are given by cancer stage and are accompanied by an extensive list of references. Screening and testing recommendations are accompanied by Summary of Evidence and Evidence of Benefit statements as well as an extensive list of references.
- National Guideline Clearinghouse
The National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. NGC is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (formerly the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research) in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans. For best results search for a known medical subject heading. Create a collection of guidelines for comparison purposes or select a guideline title for availability information
Other Websites
Use the following resources to find evidence-based practice course materials, evaluation criteria, links to other websites and selected articles with a high level of evidence.
- AOTA Evidence-Based Practice
The American Occupational Therapy Association's (AOTA) EBP website requires a login and password which is available to members of the organization. This website provides an EBP Resource Directory, a gateway to other EBP websites, as well as Evidence Briefs, lists of research articles organized under various diagnoses and arranged in hierarchical order of level of evidence.
- APTA Hooked on Evidence
The American Physical Therapy Association's (APTA) Hooked on Evidence website requires a login and password which is available to members of the organization. This website provides a database of current research evidence on the effectiveness of physical therapy interventions. It also provides practice guidelines, useful websites and other evidence based practice information.
- Center for Evidence-Based Medicine
Sponsored by the University of Toronto, this website includes an introduction to EBP, information about practicing and teaching EBP, EBP resources, a glossary, and syllabi with scenarios for diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, harm, systematic reviews and qualitative research.
- Evidence Based Nursing Online
This online journal provides access to quality appraised abstracted research relevant to nursing practice.
- Evidence-Based Pediatrics Web Site
This site was created by the University of Michigan Health System, Department of Pediatrics, for residents in medicine. Click the Critically-Appraised Topics tab. Critical appraisals are arranged under major categories (e.g., Cardiology, Nephrology, Endocrinology, etc.) and include the question, clinical bottom lines, summary of key evidence, additional comments, and citations.
- HiRU
The Health Information Research Unit (HiRU), located at McMaster University, focuses on evidence-based health informatics. This website includes a list of HiRU projects and serves as a gateway to other web-based resources.
- McMaster University School of Rehabilitation Science: Center for Evidence-Based Rehabilitation
This website provides skills and strategies for searching for evidence, appraising the evidence, using the evidence in practice and evidence based practice reviews.
- McMaster University Health Sciences Library: Resources for Evidence-Based Nursing
Provides resources for the five steps in evidence-based practice.
- OTCATs
Supported by the University of Western Sydney, Australia, this web site contains critically appraised topics (CATs) and a template occupational therapists can use to appraise articles. Click Topics in the top menu to see the entire list of 47 topics appraised (as of 5/11/2009). The list include the topic, author(s), year of appraisal, a downloadable PDF file that contain the author's appraisal, and file size. Each appraisal contains the author(s), author's facility location, appraisal date, review date, clinical scenario, clinical question, summary/key findings of best evidence appraised, clinical bottom line, limitations, search strategy date coverage, PICO definitions, databases searched with search terms and limits used, inclusion/exclusion criteria, result of search, summary of best evidence (which includes the critical appraisal: validity, interpretation of results, and summary/conclusion), implications for practice and future research, and references.
- PEDro
The Physiotherapy Evidence Database, PEDro, has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. Most trials on the database have been rated for quality to help you quickly discriminate between trials which are likely to be valid and interpretable and those which are not.
- PSYCBITE
PSYCBITE stands for Psychological Database for Brain Impairment Treatment Efficacy. This Australian database of articles with varying levels of evidence permits searching by author, keyword(s), journal, year, target area, intervention, neurological group, method, and patient age group. Results list the author(s), article title, journal title (source), volume, issue, pages, abstract research method. and rating. Unfortunately many of the studies have not been rated.
- Puckett Institute: Evidence-Based Practices
The Research and Training Center (RTC) on Early Childhood Development provides a coordinated and advanced program of applied research on knowledge and practice that improves interventions associated with the healthy mental, behavioral, communication, pre-literacy, social-emotional, and interpersonal development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with or at risk for developmental disabilities.
Systematic Reviews
Use these resources to find intervention recommendations based on a statistical analysis of a comprehensive collection of articles with a high level of evidence. These resources may also be a source of articles in scholarly journals with a high level of evidence.
- PubMed Clinical Queries
This government website provides search strategies for finding clinical studies and systematic reviews.
- OT Seeker
This website contains a database of abstracts of systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist you in evaluating their validity and interpretability. Sponsors include the University of Queensland, OT Australia and the University of Western Sydney
