Answering Clinical Questions (optometry)

For more tips and resources visit http://www.eboptometry.com/

Search Strategy Flowchart

Type of question

Website resources (free)

Intervention Other
1. Evidence-based guidelines
www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-
publications
http://www.cos-sco.ca/
Cochrane No Cochrane
http://www.college-
Library (3) Systematic review
optometrists.org/en/professional-
standards/clinical_management_guidelin
es/guidelines_by_condition.cfm
http://www.aoa.org/optometrists/tools- Database of Abstracts
and-resources/clinical-practice-guidelines of effectiveness
http://one.aao.org/CE/PracticeGuidelines/ DARE (3)
PPP.aspx Systematic
2. Critical Appraisal Topics (CATS) Review
Clinical Trial
http://www.bestbets.org
register
3. Cochrane library & Cochrane CENTRAL (3)
Eye Vision Group
http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0
PubMed Clinic
/index.html No RCTs
RCTs Queries (4)
http://eyes.cochrane.org
4. PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
5. Google Scholar
RCT / No studies
http://scholar.google.com.au/ Critical
Cohort Study
6. Trip Appraisal
http://www.tripdatabase.com/

Many good resources d(i.e. databases

PubMed (4, 5, 6)
and scientific journals) require General search/other databases
subscription. This may be available Critical
through your workplace, professional Appraisal
association membership or university.
Look for: Medline, CINAHL, AMED, BEWARE
Embase, Scopus, Evidence-Based
You are now entering territory
Medicine, Essential Evidence Plus,
with lower quality studies
Joanna Briggs Institute, etc.

Clinical question
Patient Problem
Describe those that are relevant to your practice. Think about type of patient (e.g. Gender, race, age) and problem (e.g. Disease) you are
facing.
Intervention
Interventions can be vision devices, drug therapies, placebos, or recommendations for environmental modifications or ways in which the
information is given to patient. They can also be diagnostic tests.
Comparison Intervention
This can be standard therapy or no intervention or a placebo or an alternative treatment, exposure or diagnostic test.
Outcome
Make a decision between the outcome which is relevant to your patient or problem and the outcome measures deployed in studies.
Spend some time working out exactly what outcome is important to you, your patient, and the time-frame which is appropriate.

Modified from: www.cebm.net/