Interpreting medical literature is essential for providing evidence-based care to critically ill children. This lecture format is designed to help intensivists independently and effectively appraise research articles to aid in proper application of research.
Format Pearls
- The series of steps for this conference is to:
- Isolate a journal article and send this out at least 5 days prior to the journal club. Having a discussion with PD/APD or faculty mentor early is key.
- The journal article does not have always have to be related to the organ system of the month - it is reasonable to have it be a new article, sentinel paper, or an article which was used for a clinical conundrum.
- At the introduction of your journal club presentation, provide background as to why you chose the article.
- Note, the journal article does not always have to be from Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.
- Characterize what study type is your article:
- Case Report
- Case Series
- Qualitative Study
- Cross Sectional Study
- Case Control Study
- Cohort Study
- Systematic Review
- Guideline
- Randomized Control Trial
- Meta-Analysis
- If there is an intervention in the study, highlight the question in a PICO format: population, intervention, comparison, outcome
- To present the article, consider having the slides follow the article format:
- Introduction
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Utilize a critical appraisal tool & also frame questions throughout inviting the audience to ‘think like the article authors’:
- Why was the study designed in a certain way?
- Does this affect the outcomes of the study?
- Consider the population studied?
- How would you have designed the study differently?
- How does this study alter your clinical practice?
- What are its strengths?
- What are its limitations?
- If you are presenting a table, add boxes or lines to draw attention.
- Focus on basic statistics and provide a short description on statistical tests that are more esoteric with an emphasis on why this was chosen.
Journal Club Resources for Preparation
🔗 JAMA Evidence:
jamaevidence-mhmedical-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu
jamaevidence-mhmedical-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu
🔗 Critical Appraisal Worksheets:
