Critical appraisal skills programme (CASP)

Health care staff need to know how to appraise and interpret the research literature in order to apply it for the benefits of patients. The skills in interpreting research studies are commonly known as critical appraisal skills.

The library service holds a number of resources to assist those wishing to gain these skills. These include workbooks for those wanting to learn at their own pace via self-directed learning and toolkits of worked examples and guided exercises for those wanting to set up regular CASP workshop meetings with a small group of colleagues.

Depending on existing time commitments, library staff are available to assist with the facilitation of CASP workshops. Please contact the library staff for details or to discuss your requirements.

Online tutorial

• Critical appraisal

Critical appraisal checklists

Checklists developed to help with the process of critically appraising articles from different types of research.

• CASP critical appraisal checklists
• CEBM critical appraisal checklists
• SIGN (Scottish intercollegiate guidelines network) critical appraisal checklist
• PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database) scale

Critical appraisal toolkits

• IMPACTE Groups Toolkit

Created by the information specialist at Quality:MK to support Improving Medical Practice by Assessing CurrenT Evidence groups in Primary Care

• Evidence-Based Medicine Toolkit

This is a collection of tools for identifying, assessing and applying relevant evidence for better health care decision-making. The appraisal tools are adapted from the Users' Guides series prepared by the Evidence Based Medicine Working Group and originally published in JAMA

• CATmaker

Available to download, CATmaker is a software tool which helps you create Critically Appraised Topics, or CATs, for the key articles you encounter about Therapy, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Aetiology/Harm and Systematic Reviews of Therapy

Glossaries

• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions: Glossary
• Bandolier: EBM Glossary

Understanding Statistics

Introduction to statistics

• An introduction to statistics for clinical audit
• BMJ Learning module - Understanding statistics (access with NHS Athens)

Confidence Intervals and p-values

• Bandolier: What are confidence intervals and p-values?
• Chris Cates explains: p-values and confidence intervals
• BMJ Learning module - Understanding statistics 2: is there a significant difference (access with NHS Athens)

Number Needed to Treat (NNT)

• Bandolier: What is an NNT
• Chris Cates explains: No Need To be confused