OT AUSTRALIA NSW

Appraising or Undertaking Research

CPD Events
OT AUSTRALIA NSW regularly organises CPD events designed specifically for occupational therapists who are developing their research skills, and for those who are exploring the evidence base of their clinical practice.

Australian Online Learning Resources

  • Australian Centre for Evidence Based Clinical Practice
    The Australian Centre for Evidence Based Clinical Practice (ACEBCP) is a resource centre for clinicians, researchers, health service managers and consumers with an interest in improving the quality and safety of health care through the application of best evidence. The ACEBCP is a joint initiative of Flinders Medical Centre Division of Medicine and the Flinders University Schools of Medicine and Nursing. Its primary aim is to facilitate best practice in health care by assisting health care professionals develop and apply the skills needed for evidence based practice (EBP).

  • Centre for General Practice Integration Studies - Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development
    The NSW Primary Health Care Research Capacity Building Program is one of a number of programs across Australia where universities have been funded to build research capacity in general practice and primary health care. The four collaborating partners in the Program are the Departments of General Practice and Rural Health at the Universities of Sydney, Newcastle and New South Wales. Information includes designing and using questionnaires and understanding data and statistics.

  • National Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health
    The National Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health is a Clearinghouse for information on consumer feedback and participation methodologies. The Centre provides many online free full text publications including 'Methods and models of consumer participation' (2004).

  • NHMRC Statement on Consumer and Community Participation in Health and Medical Research
    The Consumers Health Forum of Australia Inc and the National Health and Medical Research Council worked in partnership with consumers and researchers to develop the Statement on Consumer and Community Participation in Health and Medical Research. The Statement on Participation is intended as a guide to consumer and community participation at all levels and across all types of health and medical research. It includes checklists as a starting point in facilitating involvement.

  • Royal Australasian College of Physicians - Improve Your Practice
    This multi-disciplinary relevant site has been prepared by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' Health Policy Unit as part of the Clinical Support Systems Program. Clinicians can use this model to design projects that may start from different premises, for example:
    Exploratory projects - Use exploratory projects to gauge whether current practice is actually congruent with evidence. While there is a wealth of data collected in clinical settings, it does not often provide clinicians with useful feedback about practice and how it relates to evidence. Clinicians can use the model to understand and systematically analyse their practice. Depending on results, strategies to support better practice may or may not be necessary.
    Practice-change projects - Use practice-change projects to address an already known or perceived gap between current practice and evidence. Here the project aims to improve practice from the outset and clinicians can use the model to design a systematic approach to achieve this aim.

  • University of Melbourne - Conducting a Literature Review
    This University of Melbourne Library Guide explains steps involved in conducting a literature review including Getting Started, Reading Materials, Critical Reading, Reviewing and Rethinking, Plagiarism, Structure of a Literature Review, Starting to Write, A Final Checklist, Further Reading and Examples.

  • University of Tasmania - Online Guide to Accessing Health Information
    The University of Tasmania Department of Rural Health & Discipline of General Practice OnLine Guide to Accessing (OLGA) and interpreting health related information. The advanced guide covers searching medical databases and electronic journals, which databases to use, formulating answerable questions (PICO), appraising and applying research articles, review articles and clinical guidelines.

    International Online Learning Resources

  • Boynton, P., Greenhalgh, T. 'Selecting, designing, and developing your questionnaire' BMJ 2004;328:1312-1315 (29 May)
    First in a three part series of articles on using questionnaires. Other articles include 'Administering, analysing, and reporting your questionnaire' and 'Reaching beyond the white middle classes'

  • Cochrane Collaboration Open Learning Material for Reviewers
    Relevant for any person conducting a systematic review, the Cochrane Collaboration's Open Learning Material for Cochrane Reviewers provides learning resources including the formulation of appropriate questions, literature-searching, critical appraisal, statistical analysis and interpretation and application of your findings.

  • McMaster University Centre for Evidence-Based Rehabilitation
    The core of evidence-based rehabilitation centres on the collection and analysis of information, and its use in practice. Resources on the collection and analysis of information, and its use in practice.

  • Moynihan, R. 'Evaluating Health Services: A Reporter Covers the Science of Research Synthesis'
    A report describing who is doing systematic reviews, how the most reliable reviews are being prepared, and how they are being used. Also includes how scientists and policymakers assess the strengths, weaknesses, and promise of the methodology for preparing reviews

  • Trochim, W. (Social) 'Research Methods Knowledge Base'
    The Research Methods Knowledge Base is a comprehensive web-based textbook that addresses all of the topics in a typical introductory undergraduate or graduate course in social research methods. It covers the entire research process including: formulating research questions; sampling (probability and nonprobability); measurement (surveys, scaling, qualitative, unobtrusive); research design (experimental and quasi-experimental); data analysis; and, writing the research paper. It also addresses the major theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of research including: the idea of validity in research; reliability of measures; and ethics. The Knowledge Base was designed to be different from the many typical commercially-available research methods texts. It uses an informal, conversational style to engage both the newcomer and the more experienced student of research.

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    Sources of Evidence

    OTseeker
    OTseeker is a a free online database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist occupational therapists to evaluate their validity and interpretability. These ratings assist occupational therapists to judge the quality and usefulness of trials for informing clinical interventions. In one database, OTseeker provides occupational therapists with fast and easy access to trials from a wide range of sources.

    Cochrane Library
    The Cochrane Library contains:

  • The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - A rapidly growing list of regularly updated summaries of the best available evidence prepared by members of the Cochrane Collaboration.
  • The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE) - Other published reviews prepared by people outside of the Cochrane Collaboration.
  • The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) - Where to look if you want to track down the original studies – the largest single source of controlled trials.

    OT CATS
    The Australian OTCATS website contains CATs focussing on occupational therapy interventions. A critically appraised topic (or CAT) is a short summary of evidence. It is like a shorter and less rigorous version of a systematic review, summarising the best available research evidence on a topic. Usually more than one study is included in a CAT. This method of collating evidence is typically used by busy clinicians. CATs are also increasingly being used as a university assignment to assess student's skill and knowledge.

    HMMInfo Clearing House
    HMMInfo Clearing House is a university-based, non-profit organisation funded by the NSW Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care to develop a knowledge base and information Clearinghouse on home modification and maintenance.

    Australian Family and Disability Studies Research Collaboration
    The Australian Family and Disability Studies Research Collaboration is part of the School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences (OLS) at Sydney University. The website includes information grouped into four key areas: families with children with disabilities, parenting with intellectual disability, adults with disability and family care. Each area includes pages on current AFDSRC research, completed AFDSRC research, implications for practice based on the evidence of research results and resources such as tools developed through the Collaboration's research, publications, and links to useful websites. This information is presented to support evidence based practice by making research results easily understandable and translatable to practice.

    PEDRO
    PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. Most trials on the database have been rated for quality to help you quickly discriminate between trials which are likely to be valid and interpretable and those which are not.

    PubMed
    PubMed, a service of the US National Library of Medicine, includes over 14 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. These citations are from MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

  • Australian and New Zealand occupational therapy abstracts...quick search
  • All occupational therapy abstracts...quick search

    British Medical Journal
    The British Medical Journal website provides online full text peer reviewed research papers.

    Medical Journal of Australia
    The full text of every issue of the Medical Journal of Australia since January 2002 is online. Prior to 2002, only selected articles are online.

    The Centre for Clinical Effectiveness
    The Centre for Clinical Effectiveness aims to enhance patient outcomes through the clinical application of the best available evidence. It undertakes teaching and research activities, and answers requests for evidence from the staff of Southern Health, Melbourne, Australia.

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    • Glossary


    Source: www.informedhealthonline.org

    Abstract
    A very brief summary or digest of the study and its results. It should tell you what the study tried to show, how the researchers went about it, and what they found.

    Clinical Trial
    A clinical trial involves administering a treatment to test it. It is an experiment. Clinical trial is an umbrella term for a variety of health care trials, whether controlled or uncontrolled. Types include uncontrolled trials, controlled clinical trials (CCT), community trials, and randomised controlled trials (RCT). A clinical trial is also sometimes called a 'therapeutic trial'.

    Control
    The people in a 'control' group or arm in a controlled trial or a case-control study (also called the comparison group). In a trial, people who are the 'controls' represent the status quo (current standard treatment) or placebo (dummy) treatment, against which the effectiveness of a treatment is tested.

    Critical Appraisal
    The process of assessing and interpreting evidence, by systematically considering its validity, results, and relevance.

    Peer Review
    A refereeing process, used to check the quality and importance of reports of research. An article submitted for publication in a peer reviewed journal is reviewed by other experts in the area. It aims to provide a wider check on the quality and interpretation of a report.

    Systematic Review
    A review of studies in which evidence has been systematically searched for, studied, assessed, and summarised according to predetermined criteria. Systematic reviews often use meta-analysis to summarise results of comparable studies.

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