Contemporary Drug Information: An Evidence-Based Approach Book

A Framework for Evaluating Contemporary Healthcare Information
Integrating Drug Information, Literature Evaluation, and Biostatistics to Provide Evidence-Based Pharmaceutical Care     2
The Triad of Skills     4
Integrating the Skill Triad into Routine Clinical Situations     6
Asking and Answering Drug Information Questions     13
A Systematic Approach to Providing Drug Information     14
Putting It all Together-Practicing the Systematic Approach     31
Ethics and Legalities of Providing Drug Information     35
Tools for Evaluating Contemporary Healthcare Information
Overview of Research Designs Used to Answer Drug Information Questions     44
Descriptive Research Designs     45
Observational Research Designs     46
Randomized Controlled Trial Study Designs     56
Pharmacoeconomics Study Designs     61
Systematic Reviews     62
Applying the Results from Healthcare Research Designs     64
Biostatistics Concepts-The Building Blocks for Evaluating Biostatistical Methods in Clinical Research     68
Properties of Variables     71
Distributions of Numbers     73
Describing Data     76
Foundations of Statistical Inference     83
Probability     86
Probability Distributions     91
Sampling Distributions     97
Hypothesis Testing     101
Putting It All Together-Understanding the Rationale for Statistical Inference     106
Effect Size of Statistically Significant Differences     107
Critical Appraisal of Evidence Derived from Cases     111
Case Study and Case Series Designs     112
The Case-Control Study Design     113
Expressing Associations Using Case-Control Study Designs     115
Analyzing Nominal and Ordinal Data     119
How to Evaluate Evidence from a Case-Control Study     132
Critical Appraisal of Evidence Derived from Cohorts and Surveys     141
Cohort Study Design     142
How to Evaluate Evidence from a Cohort Study Design     144
Relationships among Variables     149
Cross-Sectional Study Design     160
How to Evaluate a Cross-Sectional Study     162
Critical Appraisal of Evidence Derived from Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials     168
Types of Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials     170
Methodological Considerations     177
How to Evaluate Evidence from a Clinical Trial Design     192
How a Pharmacist Might Use Critical Evaluation of RCTs to Provide Drug Information     200
Critical Appraisal of Evidence Derived from Pharmacoeconomics Studies     205
The Pharmacoeconomics Question     206
The Research Question and General Information     210
Costs and Outcomes     212
Types of Pharmacoeconomics Analyses     215
Evidence and Data Collection     221
External Validity and Application to the Pharmacoeconomics Question     234
Critical Appraisal of Evidence Derived from Systematic Reviews     237
Quantitative Systematic Reviews (Meta-Analyses)     238
How to Evaluate a Meta-Analysis     253
Qualitative Systematic Reviews     259
Clinical Decision Making Using Contemporary Healthcare Information
Evaluating and Implementing Practice Guidelines     266
Limitations of Implementing Clinical Practice Guidelines     268
Methods for Clinical Practice Guideline Development     269
Evaluating Clinical Practice Guidelines     273
The Pharmacist's Role in Implementing Guidelines     282
Using Practice Guidelines to Make Clinical Decisions     284
Keeping Current with the Medical Literature-Becoming an Information Master     289
A Patient Centered Strategy for Distilling Clinically Relevant Information      290
Foraging through the Medical Literature     295
Maintaining Literature Evaluation Skills     300
Drug Information Tables     303
Statistical Tables     310
Reprints of Critiqued Articles     317
Glossary     345
Index     358