CRITICAL APPRAISAL

I read a lot of cardiothoracic and cardiac related abstracts every week. Occasionally I may read the whole paper. When I do this, I critically appraise the paper in my head and usually summarise on the blog. I have decided therefore that I ought to start a formal journal club. Every week I will pick a paper and formally critically appraise it. There are a number of formal critical appraisal sheets available on various Evidence Based Medicine websites. Examples include the excellent BestBet topics, and the authoritative centre for evidence based medicine at Oxford University and the new NHS public health website.
So watch this space.