TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Interpreting and Applying Evidence in Critical Care Medicine A1 - Biddison, Elizabeth Lee Daugherty A1 - White, Douglas B. A2 - Hall, Jesse B. A2 - Schmidt, Gregory A. A2 - Kress, John P. PY - 2015 T2 - Principles of Critical Care, 4e AB - Effective critical care practice requires a rational approach to understanding, interpreting, and integrating clinical research studies, outcome measures, measures of association, and statistical testing relevant to research in intensive care units.Clinical research studies generally fall into one of two categories: observational studies or experimental studies, and each study type has different strengths and weaknesses.The goal of the observation is to evaluate associations between exposures and one or more outcomes of interest to investigators. The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is an important experimental design used to assess the efficacy of a medical intervention.Critical care research frequently relies on surrogate end points that allow demonstration of treatment effect with fewer patients over less time. Trials using surrogate end points should be interpreted with great caution.Appropriate interpretation of the results of treatment trials requires clear understanding of measures of association, including both relative risk and absolute and relative risk reduction (RRR). Making an educated decision about the application of a study's findings to one's patients also necessitates assessing the number needed to treat (NNT) to see a benefit to the population.Evaluating clinical research evidence also requires addressing the meaning of p values and confidence intervals. These statistical measures aid the assessment of whether observed differences in outcomes between groups reflect true differences or simply chance variation.To correctly interpret a variety of diagnostic tests, one must understand how well that test reflects the actual presence or absence of disease in any given patient. The sensitivity and specificity of a given test reflect how closely the result of that test reflects the “truth” about a patient's disease process.Qualitative methods can serve a variety of purposes in critical care research and should be reviewed no less critically than quantitative methods. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1107711030 ER -