CATWalk: A Guide to Critically Appraised Topics

Once you have searched the literature to find what evidence is available on a particular topic, the next step is to evaluate the strength of the evidence itself. Not all research studies are of the same calibre, and it is your job to determine whether the evidence you found is valid and applicable to your patients. When critically appraising the literature you have found, you should always ask the following three questions:

• Are the results of the study valid?
• What are the results?
• Can the results be applied to my patient?

For a complete overview of these questions and the more detailed questions that stem from them, please refer to worksheets produced by JAMA Evidence or the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine.