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Why Do We Need Evidence-based Health Care?

There is worldwide interest in making health services more effective in order to maximise the health gains they deliver. But how do we know which services are truly effective? How do purchasers know which treatments to fund? How do public health professionals and clinicians decide whether a particular intervention is worthwhile? If the best standards of care are to be achieved for populations or patients, these sorts of decisions need to be based on evidence.

This is where critical appraisal skills are essential. Critical appraisal is necessary to assess systematically the trustworthiness, relevance and results of published and unpublished papers. In this package, you will learn how to critically appraise several different study designs.



Listen to what Sir Iain Chalmers, one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration, says about why he became interested in evidence-based health care. (1:50)

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