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Clinical Guide: Evaluating Research

First off, apologies for my absence yesterday. Migraines have been getting the best of me on and off for the past week, and yesterday I finally just surrendered. But I’m back today, and because I’m a giant nerd, there’s a new clinical guide for you on evaluating research. For anyone who’s ever heard me speak on the issue of providing ethical and effective court testimony, one of the main topics of discussion is always about being able to support your opinions with credible scientific information. That, of course, leads into a discussion of how you actually do that. Fortunately, many smart people have addressed this topic. Click through for a listing of full-text articles and web resources divided into 4 sections: general information, internet sources, healthcare research and violence research:

Please contact me if you’d like the word doc of this clinical guide:

EVALUATING RESEARCH

General:

NEW: How can you tell if scientific evidence is strong or weak? (vox.com)

NEW: Predatory Publishing (FHO)

Evaluating Research Quality [PDF] (T. Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Institute)

Evaluating Introductions and Literature Reviews [PDF](F. Pyrczak, via Indiana University)

Interpreting Research Studies [PDF] (Guttmacher Institute)

Who’s Afraid of Peer Review? (J. Bohannon, Science)

How to Read a Research Article [PDF] (R. Dunafon via Cornell University)

A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science (A brilliant infographic from Compound Interest)

Internet Sources:

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet: Distinguishing Propaganda and Misinformation (Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries)

Evaluating Internet Research Sources (R. Harris)

Healthcare Research:

A Simple Method for Evaluating the Clinical Literature (R. Flaherty, Family Practice Management)

Checklist for the qualitative evaluation of clinical studies with particular focus on external validity and model validity [PDF](G. Bornh, BMC Medical Research Methodology)

Critique Process [PDF](C. Boswell & S. Cannon, via Jones and Bartlett Publishers)

Evaluating the Literature (T. Gaeta, Medscape)

Finding the research for evidence-based practice – Part two: Selecting credible evidence (J. Fitzpatrick, Nursing Times)

User’s Guide to the Nursing Research: An Introduction (N. Cullum, Evidence Based Nursing)

Glossary of Evidence-Based Medicine Terms (Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine)

Violence Research:

Evaluating Violence Against Women Research Reports (S. Beeman, VAWnet)

Reading, Understanding and Evaluating Research: Glossary of Research Terms [PDF] (NSVRC)

Understanding Evidence: Pt. I Best Available Research Evidence (CDC)

{See also: Guide to Literature Searches and our previous post on understanding and evaluating the literature}

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Men and Boys: Preventing Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence

In keeping with yesterday’s post, I was happy to discover that VAWnet announced its newest special collection today (what timing!), Men and Boys: Preventing Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence. And for those of you who feel like, as healthcare providers this is interesting, but not relevant to the work we do in caring for patients, I ask you to at least spend some time with this section of the collection:

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

A Conversation with Tony Porter

Tony Porter is a co-founder of A Call to Men. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing him speak before, and TEDxWomen has hosted him in the past. Along with the video they have a conversation with him posted on their site. Click through to watch the presentation.

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Sexual Assault

Keeping SANE/SAFE Programs Healthy

I have a guest post today over at the EVAW International blog on keeping SANE/SAFE programs healthy. I hope you’ll go check it out!

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke, 7-23-12

It was a pretty difficult news weekend; I tried to force myself to read more than just coverage of the Aurora shootings. As it turns out, there were some pretty insightful pieces written on Aurora, mainly on the need for gun control. I’ve included the best of what I read, along with a few other interesting articles and blog posts since last we spoke (and if nothing else, please read the last piece to which I linked–it’s pure happiness):

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#Aurora

I’m profoundly sad about the news out of Aurora today. Denver was my home for 6 years while I was in graduate school and I still have many friends there. This is the 2nd mass shooting in the area since I left. Please let it be the last. And please let us be able to come together to have meaningful conversations about how to prevent these types of senseless tragedies.

My prayers are with the victims, their families and loved ones.

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Sexual Assault

Understanding National Rape Statistics

NSVRC has a new, free online course, Understanding National Rape Statistics. From the site: This 30 minute interactive course is adapted from the Applied Research Paper, Understanding National Rape Statistics (PDF) by Dean Kilpatrick and Jenna McCauley. Participants will understand how and why rape statistics are generated for national studies; critically evaluate the information provided by national studies on sexual violence; and apply statistics in their work.

My geek heart loves this…

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Workplace Stress and Trauma Informed Care

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health is offering a webinar, Workplace Stress and Trauma Informed Care. The session will take place July 30th at 2pm CT. Dr. Sandra Bloom will be the featured speaker. It’s part of the ongoing series, The Impact of Trauma on Women and Girls Across the Lifespan. Previous archived sessions can be found here (scroll down).

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The Social MEDia Course

So how cool is this? Yesterday, during a break between presentations, I was talking with a group of participants (one of whom was live tweeting my sessions) about my hope to see more nurses embrace Twitter and other types of social media for professional use. Many of my advocate colleagues do a fantastic job using social media for information dissemination, publicizing events, etc., and I would love for clinicians, especially nurses, to do the same.

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 7-16-12

I’m in Nashville, TN today for what I anticipate will be some great conversation on issues such as medical testimony and sustainability. Travel always gives me a time to catch up on some reading (I try very hard not to work on planes–this is one self-care activity that I’m pretty good at. Working in airports is another matter altogether.), so here’s a diverse lineup of articles I’ve been perusing since last we spoke:

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Violence *is* a Public Health Issue

The immense frustration I feel at this story of one southern governor who feels that anti-violence programs don’t need a line item in the Department of Health’s budget because sexual and domestic violence programs “distract” from the public health mission is difficult to articulate…

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Can a Stitch in Time Save Nine?

I’ve featured Ed Gavagan on this site before, but this time, I have a video of his talk about survival, filmed here in DC at the 2012 TEDMED gathering.

The last minute is really something.

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Child Abuse Sexual Assault

Child Sexual Abuse Examinations: Interpreting Acute and Chronic Physical Findings

Just a reminder that the next IAFN webinar in the 2012 series is coming up July 25th from 2-3:15pm. Child Sexual Abuse Exams: Intepreting Acute and Chronic Physical Findings is going to be presented by one of my favorite peds people, Dr. Marie Marino, current IAFN Board member and Past-President. Cost is $15/member ($30/non-members) and will net you 1 CEU.

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 7-9-12

I know I’m not alone in saying that this heat wave that so many of us have been experiencing has been pretty brutal. While the oppressive temps seem to be breaking a bit, there hasn’t been much motivation to leave the confines of my air conditioned row house for the past week. Much of the reading I did this weekend was about weather, but there were a few FHO-type news items to draw my attention:

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Endgame

Yesterday, Fresh Air featured the upcoming Frontline documentary, Endgame: AIDS in Black America, which made me realize I needed to remind FHO readers that we have a clinical guide, updated last night, on this issue. Add to this a question on nPEP I received yesterday, along with the newly approved HIV home testing kit, and the timing just seemed right.

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DV/IPV Sexual Assault

New Podcasts at the Defense Centers of Excellence

The Defense Centers of Excellence have a couple recent podcasts that may be of interest to FHO readers. The first is a podcast on military sexual trauma, which specifically looks at the research in this article. The other is a podcast from the recent webinar, Intimate Partner Violence: What Healthcare Providers Need to Know.

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Kids’ Social Media and Internet Use

Yesterday, on my personal Facebook page I posted this link, Talking to Kids About Social Media and Sexting (AAP), which prompted one FHO reader to ask about other social media and general Internet usage guides for parents and providers working with kids. I have several links in my library, so click through to check out some other good resources on this topic. See also an earlier related FHO posts here.

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Child Abuse DV/IPV Sexual Assault

Since Last We Spoke 7-2-12

I didn’t get a whole lot of reading done this weekend, since this happened, so I don’t have quite as much to report, Since Last We Spoke: