Interpreting research findings to guide treatment in practice

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1499

Published 24 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1499
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1499

Practice

Practice Pointer

Interpreting research findings to guide treatment in practice

Tony Kendrick, professor of primary medical care¹, Kelsey Hegarty, associate professor², Paul Glasziou, director³

¹ University of Southampton, Primary Medical Care, Aldermoor Health Centre, Southampton SO16 5ST, ² University of Melbourne, Department of General Practice, Carlton 3053, Australia , ³ Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford, Department of Primary Health Care, Oxford OX3 7LF

Correspondence to: T Kendrick: A.R.Kendrick@soton.ac.uk

When applying research findings to individual patients, practitionerscan use the PICO approach, which considers characteristics ofthe patient or population, intervention, comparator or context,and outcome. Patient centred practitioners should however identifythe outcomes which are important to individual patients.

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Trials are important but not sufficient for good clinical decisionmaking. Recommendations derived from trials in groups of patientsmust be interpreted and adapted by clinicians to the contextof each individual patient seen in practice.¹ The spectrum ofpatients in primary care is often very different from that insecondary care and clinical trials. In general, practitionershave two options: to consider how the treatment’s benefitsand harms will differ given the severity, risk, and contextof the individual patient, or to use a "try it and see" approach(or, more formally, do an "n of 1" trial). There is a rangebetween these options. Take the example of the case of depressiondescribed in box 1.

A 54year old man presents with low mood after separating from hiswife of 30 years. He is usually seen only twice a year for reviewof his epilepsy drugs, tends . . . [Full text of this article]

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