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Martins Top topics Students should learn about

through S4BE
This list will help build categories on the website, once the list is finished
we will then ask people to give their top 10 resources for each point.

1. What is EBM Evidence Based Medicine


2. What is an adverse effect
3. What does the balance of benefits and harms mean
4. Whats the difference between odds & risks
5. What is a hazard ratio
6. What is an economic analysis
7. What is sensitivity
8. What is specificity
9. What is a positive predictive value
10. What is a negative predictive value
11. What is risk ratio
12. What is relative risk (RR)
13. What is absolute risk (AR)
14. How would you express the same data as RR and AR
15. What is an odds ratio
16. What is a two-by-two table
17. What does numbers needed to treat mean
18. What does numbers needed to harm mean
19. What is a systematic review
20. How does a systematic review differ from a traditional review
21. How do you critically appraise a paper about a treatment
22. How do you critically appraise a study about a diagnostic test
and its accuracy
23. How do you critically appraise a systematic review
24. What is bias
25. What is attrition bias
26. What is detection bias
27. What is allocation bias
28. What is allocation concealment
29. What is performance bias
30. What is publication bias
31. What are levels of evidence or ranks
32. What does no evidence of effect/evidence of no effect
mean and how do they differ
33. Prioritisation how are research topics prioritised
34. How might patients be involved in prioritising research (An
example - James Lind Alliance
35. What is a meta-analysis
36. Distinction between systematic reviews & meta-analysis
37. Heterogeneity
38. Blinding what is it? What is effective blinding? What is not?
39. What databases are there? PubMed, EMBASE, LILACS,
CENTRAL
40. Language bias positive results more likely to be published in
English
41. What is a clinical trials register?
42. Placebos
43. What is confounding
44. What is confounding by indication
45. The I2 statistic
46. What are outcomes? What are relevant outcomes? What are
surrogate outcomes?
47. What is a composite outcome? Why are they reported?
What is the significance?
48. What are cut-off points
49. How do patients values and beliefs get taken into account
when practising EBM
50. What is shared-decision making
51. What is unwarranted variation in practice
52. How do you search the literature
53. What is a ROC curve (receiver operator characteristics)
54. What is a guideline
55. How is evidence incorporated into guidelines
56. What is blinding? What is an example of effective and non-
effective blinding
57. What is the CONSORT statement
58. What is randomisation? What is an example of effective and
non-effective randomisation?
59. What is a case-control study
60. What is a cohort study
61. What is the Cochrane Collaboration
62. Who was Archie Cochrane?
63. What is a post hoc analysis? How do we interpret these
results?
64. What is data dredging or a fishing trip
65. What is statistical power
66. How to you calculate power
67. What is a Type I error
68. What is a Type II error
69. What does prospective mean
70. What does retrospective mean
71. What is preference-sensitive care
72. What does fixed effects model mean
73. What does random effects model mean
74. What is the difference between descriptive and inferential
statistics
75. What is the difference between standard deviation and
standard error (and how are they related
76. What is a 95% confidence interval?
77. What is an intention to treat (ITT) analysis
78. What is an as treated analysis
79. What is a per protocol analysis
80. What do trialists do about participants who are lost to follow-
up
81. What is a cross-over trial
82. What is a carry over effect

Harry also suggested having examples of assumptions which turned out to


be wrong proved by good research:

- Observational data suggesting HRT reduced heart attacks by 50%


but RCT showed no benefit (message observational trials can be
misleading confounding factors)
- People after heart attacks die from arrhythmias, anti-arrhythmias
prescribed, CAST trial showed these drugs increase death (likely
200,000 people died)
- SR- thrombolysis for heart attacks
- SR- Steroids for premature babies

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