CanadiEM aims to improve emergency care in Canada by building an online community of practice for healthcare practitioners and providing them with high quality, freely available educational resources. Our podcasts are found on this channel and include: CRACKCast (Core Rosen's and Clinical Knowledge) helps residents to "Turn on their learn on" through podcasts that assist with exam prep by covering essential core content. ClerkCast: A podcast focused on clinical clerks and their time in emergency medicine. It provides an overview of key topics that help you to rock your EM rotations. First Year Diaries: A podcast focused on the first year of independent clinical practice in emergency medicine and all of its trials and tribulations. Physicians as Humans explores the struggles that physicians face and how they have overcome them. From addictions, mental health issues, and all manner of personal crises will be discussed to help let those who are currently struggling know that they are not alone.
http://canadiem.org/
Journal Club by CanadiEM - E03: Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) - Part 2
Purpose:
- Learn the importance of treatment studies (RCTs) in EBM
- Understand and interpret methods and results of treatment based studies
- Become familiar with critically appraising treatment based studies
Hosts:
- Dylan Collins
- Levi Johnston
- Dakoda Herman
- Jayneel Limbachia
- Jake Domm
Paper:
- Warren, Jaimee, et al. "Antacid Monotherapy Is More Effective in Relieving Epigastric Pain Than in Combination With Lidocaine: A Randomized Double‐blind Clinical Trial." Academic Emergency Medicine 27.9 (2020): 905-909. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/acem.14069
EBM Checklist for therapy studies (University of Oxford:
- https://www.cebm.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/RCT.pdf
Episode takeaway
- RCTs are considered gold standard in terms of evidence since the randomization process controls for both known and unknown confounding variables
- Understanding how to quickly and efficiently appraise studies by assessing its methods is an important skill that can help you assess its utility to your practice and whether the authors adequately answered the question
- Use a validated critical appraisal tool. We used the CEBM tool, but there are others. The GATE from by Rod Jackson is another great method to learn. Know that sometimes people use publishing guidelines as critical appraisal tools, like the CONSORT for RCTs, but these are just work arounds.
- Be skeptical and curious. If there is a published protocol, check it. Look at who funded the study. Read the COI and method to mitigate bias.