Articles

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Addressing antibiotic resistance: Focusing on acute respiratory infections in primary care (with Chris Del Mar, John B. Lowe, Mieke L. van Driel, Tammy Hoffmann, and Elaine Beller), Australian Family Physician (2012)

Extract:
We have been aware for decades – perhaps as a somewhat far-off theoretical problem –...

 

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The scatter of research: Cross sectional comparison of randomised trials and systematic reviews across specialties (with Tammy Hoffmann, Chrissy Erueti, and Sarah Thorning), BMJ (2012)

Objective: To estimate the degree of scatter of reports of randomised trials and systematic reviews,...

 

GRADE guidelines: 7. Rating the quality of evidence - Inconsistency (with Gordon H. Guyatt, Andrew D. Oxman, Regina Kunz, James Woodcock, Jan Brozek, Mark Helfand, Pablo Alonso-Coello, Roman Jaeschke, Elie A. Akl, Susan Norris, Gunn Vist, Philipp Dahm, Vijay K. Shukla, Julian Higgins, Yngve Falck-Ytter, and Holger J. Schunemann), Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (2011)

This article deals with inconsistency of relative (rather than absolute) treatment effects in binary/dichotomous outcomes....

 

GRADE guidelines: 9. Rating up the quality of evidence (with Gordon H. Guyett, Andrew D. Oxman, Shahnaz Sultan, Elie A. Akl, Pablo Alonso-Coello, David Atkins, Regina Kunz, Jan Brozek, Victor Montori, Roman Jaeschke, David Rind, Philipp Dahm, Joerg Meerpohl, Gunn Vist, Elise Berliner, Susan Norris, Yngve Falck-Ytter, M. Hassan Murad, and Holger J. Schunemann), Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (2011)

The most common reason for rating up the quality of evidence is a large effect....

 

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Systemic corticosteroids for acute sinusitis (Review) (with Roderick P. Venekamp, Matthew J. Thompson, Gail Hayward, Carl J. Heneghan, Chris Del Mar, Rafael Perera, and Maroeska M. Rovers), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2011)

Background: Acute sinusitis is a common reason for patients to seek primary care consultations. The...

 

Comparability of patient-reported health status: Multicountry analysis of EQ-5D responses in patients with type 2 diabetes (with Joshua A. Solomon, Anushka Patel, Bruce Neal, Diederick E. Grobbee, John Chalmers, and Philip M. Clark), Medical Care (2011)

Background:
Valid and comparable measures of health outcomes are needed for clinical trials, studies on quality...

 

Minimal interventions to decrease long-term use of benzodiazepines in primary care: A systematic review and meta-analysis (with Kayalvili Mugunthan and Treasure McGuire), British Journal of General Practice (2011)

Background: Long-term use of benzodiazepines (BZDs) is common. Not only is such use ineffective, but...

 

The evidence base for breast cancer screening (with Nehmet Houssami), Preventive Medicine (2011)

The history of breast cancer screening is littered with controversy. With 10 trials spanning 4...

 

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Patterns of 'leakage' in the utilisation of clinical guidelines: A systematic review (with Sharon Mickan and Amanda Burls), Postgraduate medical journal (2011)

Background Research: Evidence is insufficient to change physicians’ behaviour. In 1996, Pathman developed a four...

 

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Buteyko breathing for asthma (protocol) (with Thomas G. Campbell and Tammy Hoffmann), Cochrane database of systematic reviews (2011)

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are...

 

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Letter to the editor: Treatment of acute otitis media in children (with Chris Del Mar and Maroeska Rovers), New England journal of medicine (2011)
 

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Cardiovascular risk scores do not account for the effect of treatment: A review (with Su May Liew and Jenny Doust), Heart (2011)

Objective - To compare the strengths and limitations of cardiovascular risk scores available for clinicians...

 

Development and validation of decision rules to guide frequency of monitoring CD4 cell count in HIV-1 infections before starting antiretroviral therapy (with Thierry Buclin, Amalio Telenti, Rafael Perera, Chantal Csajka, Hansjakob Furrer, and Jeffrey K. Aronson), PLoS ONE (2011)

Background: Although CD4 cell count monitoring is used to decide when to start antiretroviral therapy...

 

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Can evidence-based medicine and clinical quality improvement learn from each other? (with Greg Ogrinc and Steve Goodman), BMJ quality & safety (2011)

The considerable gap between what we know from research and what is done in clinical...

 

GRADE guidelines: 1. Introduction-GRADE evidence profiles and summary of findings tables (with Gordon Guyatt, Andrew D. Oxman, Elie A. Akl, Regina Kunz, Gunn E. Vist, Jan Brozek, Susan Norris, Yngve Falck-Ytter, Hans deBeer, Roman Jaeschke, David Rind, Joerg Meerpohl, Philipp Dahm, and Holger J. Schunemann), Journal of clinical epidemiology (2011)

This article is the first of a series providing guidance for use of the Grading...

 

GRADE guidelines: 2. Framing the question and deciding on important outcomes (with Gordon Guyatt, Andrew D. Oxman, Regina Kunz, David Atkins, Jan Brozek, Gunn E. Vist, Philip Alderson, Yngve Falck-Ytter, and Holger J. Schunemann), Journal of clinical epidemiology (2011)

GRADE requires a clear specification of the relevant setting, population, intervention, and comparator. It also...

 

Point-of-care testing for Hb A1c in the management of diabetes: A systematic review and metaanalysis (with Lubna A. Al-Ansary, Andrew J. Farmer, Jennifer Hirst, Nia Roberts, Rafael Perera, and Christopher P. Price), Clinical chemistry (2011)

BACKGROUND: The measurement of hemoglobin A1c (Hb A1c) is employed in monitoring of patients with...

 

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Problems and promises of innovation: Why healthcare needs to rethink its love/hate relationship with the new (with Mary Dixon-Woods, Rene Amalberti, Steve Goodman, and Bo Bergman), BMJ quality & safety (2011)

Innovation is often regarded as uniformly positive. This paper shows that the role of innovation...

 

Letter to the editor: Antibiotics and acute otitis media in children (with Chris Del Mar and Maroeska Rovers), The journal of the American medical association (2011)

Extract:
In Reply: Because of space constraints, some analyses we conducted had to be left out...

 

OpenURL

Effects of fenofibrate on renal function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: The Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in Diabetes (FIELD) study (with T. M. E. Davis, R. Ting, J. D. Best, M. W. Donoghoe, P. L. Drury, D. R. Sullivan, A. J. Jenkins, R. L. O'Connell, M. J. Whiting, P. P. Glasziou, R. J. Simes, Y. A. Kesäniemi, V. J. Gebski, R. S. Scott, and A. C. Keech), Diabetologia (2011)

Aims/hypothesis: Fenofibrate caused an acute, sustained plasma creatinine increase in the Fenofibrate Intervention and Event...

 

The rise of cholesterol testing: How much is unnecessary (with Helen Doll, Brian Shine, Jonathan Kay, and Tim James), British journal of general practice (2011)

Background: Laboratory testing has increased dramatically over recent decades, which is a consequence particularly of...

 

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Monitoring adherence to drug treatment by using change in cholesterol concentration: Secondary analysis of trial data (with Katy J. L. Bell, Adrienne Kirby, Andrew Hayen, and Les Irwig), BMJ (2011)

Objective: To estimate the accuracy of monitoring cholesterol concentration for detecting non-adherence to lipid lowering...

 

Grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations in clinical practice guidelines Part 3 of 3. The GRADE approach to developing recommendations (with J. L. Brozek, E. A. Akl, E. Compalati, J. Kreis, L. Terracciano, A. Fiocchi, E. Ueffing, J. Andrews, P. Alonso-Coello, J. J. Meerpohl, D. M. Lang, R. Jaeschke, J. W. Williams Jr, B. Phillips, A. Lethaby, P. Bossuyt, M. Helfand, J. Watine, M. Afilalo, V. Welch, A. Montedori, I. Abraha, A. R. Horvath, J. Bousquet, G. H. Guyatt, and H. J. Schünemann), Allergy: European journal of allergy and clinical immunology (2011)

This is the third and last article in the series about the Grading of Recommendations...

 

Vertebroplasty versus conservative treatment for vertebral fractures (with Rachelle Buchbinder and David Kallmes), The Lancet (2010)

Extract:
Although Caroline Klazen and colleagues acknowledge that the main drawback of their open-label trial...

 

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What are the basic self-monitoring components for cardiovascular risk management? (with Alison M. Ward, Carl Heneghan, Rafael Perera, Dan Lasserson, David Nunan, and David Mant), BMC medical research methodology (2010)

Background: Self-monitoring is increasingly recommended as a method of managing cardiovascular disease. However, the design,...

 

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Cost-effectiveness of lowering blood pressure with a fixed combination of perindopril and indapamide in type 2 diabetes mellitus: An ADVANCE trial-based analysis (with Philip M. Clarke, Jan Alexander, Mohana Rajmokan, Elaine Beller, Mark Woodward, John Chalmers, Neil Poulter, and Anushka A. Patel), The Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) (2010)

Objective: To determine the cost-effectiveness of routine administration, irrespective of blood pressure (BP), of a...

 

A1C to detect diabetes in healthy adults: When should we recheck? (with Osamu Takahashi, Andrew J. Farmer, Takuro Shimbo, and Tsuguya Fukui), Diabetes care (2010)

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the optimal interval for rechecking A1C levels below the diagnostic threshold of...

 

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Seventy-five trials and eleven systematic reviews a day: How will we ever keep up? (with Hilda Bastian and Iain Chalmers), PLoS medicine (2010)

Thirty years ago, and a quarter of a century after randomised trials had become widely...

 

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Using N-of-1 trials to improve patient management and save costs (with Paul A. Scuffham, Jane Nikles, Geoffrey K. Mitchell, Michael J. Yelland, Norma Vine, Christopher J. Poulos, Peter I. Pillans, Guy Bashford, Chris Del Mar, and Philip J. Schluter), Journal of general internal medicine (2010)

BACKGROUND: N-of-1 trials test treatment effectiveness within an individual patient.

OBJECTIVE: To assess (i) the...

 

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Taking healthcare interventions from trial to practice (with Iain Chalmers, Douglas G. Altman, Hilda Bastian, Isabelle Boutron, Anne Brice, Gro Jamtvedt, Andrew Farmer, Davina Ghersi, Trish Groves, Carl Heneghan, Sophie Hill, Simon Lewin, Susan Michie, Rafael Perera, Valerie Pomeroy, Julie Tilson, Sasha Shepperd, and John W. Williams), BMJ (2010)

Extract:
The results of thousands of trials are never acted on because their published reports...

 

Review: Stopping randomized trials early for benefit and estimation of treatment effects: Systematic review and meta-regression analysis (with Dirk Bassler, Matthias Briel, Victor M. Montori, Melanie Lane, Qi Zhou, Dianne Heels-Ansdell, Stephen D. Walter, Gordon H. Guyatt, and STOPIT-2 Study Group), The journal of the American medical association (2010)

Context: Theory and simulation suggest that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) stopped early for benefit (truncated...

 

Lipid re-screening: What is the best measure and interval? (with Osamu Takahashi, Rafael Perera, Takuro Shimbo, Jiro Suwa, Sonoe Hiramatsu, and Tsuguya Fukui), Heart (2010)

Objectives: To estimate the long-term true change variation ("signal") and short-term within-person variation ("noise") of...

 

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Event rates, hospital utilization, and costs associated with major complications of diabetes: A multicountry comparative analysis (with Philip M. Clarke, Anushka Patel, John Chalmers, Mark Woodward, Stephen B. Harrap, and Joshua A. Salomon), PLoS medicine (2010)

Background: Diabetes imposes a substantial burden globally in terms of premature mortality, morbidity, and health...

 

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Self diagnosis (with Clare Goyder and Ann McPherson), BMJ (2010)

Extract:
Some conditions can be diagnosed correctly by the patient, but self diagnosis should always...

 

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A novel method to adjust efficacy estimates for uptake of other active treatments in long-term clinical trials (with John Simes, Merryn Voysey, Rachel O'Connell, James D. Best, Russell Scott, Christopher Pardy, Karen Byth, David R. Sullivan, Christian Ehnholm, and Anthony Keech), PLoS ONE (2010)

Background: When rates of uptake of other drugs differ between treatment arms in long-term trials,...

 

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Corticosteroids for pain relief in sore throat: Systematic review and meta-analysis (with Gail Hayward, Matthew J. Thompson, Carl J. Heneghan, Rafael Perera, and Chris B. Del Mar), BMJ (2009)

Objective: To evaluate whether systemic corticosteroids improve symptoms of sore throat in adults and children....

 

Grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations in clinical practice guidelines: Part 2 of 3. The GRADE approach to grading quality of evidence about diagnostic tests and strategies (with J. L. Brozek; E. A. Akl; R. Jaeschke; D. M. Lang; P. Bossuyt; P., Glasziou; M. Helfand; E. Ueffing; P. Alonso-Coello; J. Meerpohl; B. Phillips; A. R. Horvath; J. Bousquet; G. H. Guyatt; and H. J. Schünemann), Allergy: European journal of allergy and clinical immunology (2009)

The GRADE approach to grading the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations provides a...

 

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Stopping Randomized Trials Early for Benefit: A Protocol of the Study Of Trial Policy Of Interim Truncation-2 (STOPIT-2) (with Matthias Briel, Melanie Lane, Victor M. Montori, Dirk Bassler, German Malaga, Elie A. Akl, Ignacio Ferreira-Gonzalez, Pablo Alonso-Coello, Gerard Urrutia, Regina Kunz, Carolina Ruiz Culebro, Suzana Alves da Silva, David N. Flynn, Mohamed B. Elamin, Brigitte Strahm, M. Hassan Murad, Benjamin Djulbegovic, Neill K. J. Adhikari, Edward J. Mills, Femida Gwadry-Sridhar, Haresh Kirpalani, Heloisa P. Soares, Nisrin O. Abu Elnour, John J. You, Paul J. Karanicolas, Heiner C. Bucher, Julianna F. Lampropulos, Alain J. Nordmann, Karen E. A. Burns, Sohail M. Mulla, Heike Raatz, Amit Sood, Jagdeep Kaur, Clare R. Bankhead, Rebecca J. Mullan, Kara A. Nerenberg, Per Olav Vandvik, Fernando Coto-Yglesias, Holger Schünemann, Fabio Tuche, Pedro Paulo M. Chrispim, Deborah J. Cook, Kristina Lutz, Christine M. Ribic, Noah Vale, Patricia J. Erwin, Rafael Perera, Qi Zhou, Diane Heels-Ansdell, Tim Ramsay, Stephen D. Walter, and Gordon H. Guyatt), Trials (2009)

Background: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) stopped early for benefit often receive great attention and affect...

 

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Tonsillectomy or adeno-tonsillectomy versus non-surgical treatment for chronic/recurrent acute tonsillitis (Review) (with Martin J. Burton), Cochrane database of systematic reviews (2009)

Background: Surgical removal of the tonsils, with or without adenoidectomy (adeno-/tonsillectomy), is a common ENT...

 

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Antibiotics for acute otitis media in children (Review) (with Sharon Sanders, Chris Del Mar, and Maroeska Rovers), Cochrane database of systematic reviews (2009)

Background: Acute otitis media (AOM) is one of the most common diseases in early infancy...

 

Systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of diagnosis of heart failure, with modelling of implications of different diagnostic strategies in primary care (with J. Mant, J. Doust, A. Roalfe, P. Barton, M. R. Cowie, D. Mant, R. J. McManus, R. Holder, J. Deeks, K. Fletcher, M. Qume, S. Sohanpal, S. Sanders, and F. D. R. Hobbs), Health technology assessment (2009)

Objectives: To assess the accuracy in diagnosing heart failure of clinical features and potential primary...

 

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Antibiotics for sore throat (Review) (with Chris Del Mar and Annelise B. Spinks), The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2006)

Background: Sore throat is a very common reason for people to present for medical care....

 

Self-monitoring of oral anticoagulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis (with C Heneghan, P Alonso-Coello, J M. Garcia-Alamino, R Perera, and E Meats), Lancet (2006)

Background
Near-patient testing has made self-monitoring of anticoagulation with warfarin feasible, and several trials have...

 

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How well does B-type natriuretic peptide predict death and cardiac events in patients with heart failure: Systematic review (with Jenny A. Doust, Eva Pietrzak, and Annette Dobson), BMJ: British Medical Journal (2005)

Objective To assess how well B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) predicts prognosis in patients with heart...

 

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Sicily Statement on Evidence-based Practice (with Martin Dawes, William Summerskill, Antonino Cartabellotta, Janet Martin, Kevork Hopayian, Franz Porzsolt, Amanda Burls, and James Osborne), BMC medical education [electronic resource] (2005)

Background: A variety of definitions of evidence-based practice (EBP) exist. However, definitions are in themselves...

 

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Teaching evidence based medicine should be integrated into current clinical scenarios (with Chris Del Mar and Dan Mayer), BMJ (2004)

The editorial discusses some elements of teaching and learning evidence based medicine. It comments on...

 

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The State Of Primary-Care Research (with David Mant, Chris Del Mar, Andre Knottnerus, Paul Wallace, and Chris Van Weel), The Lancet (2004)

In March, 2003, the editor of The Lancet attended an international conference in Kingston, Ontario,...

 

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Sore throat (with Chris Del Mar), BMJ Clinical Evidence (2004)

This article considers the effects of interventions to reduce symptoms and complications of acute infective...

 

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Antibiotics for acute otitis media in children [Review] (with Chris Del Mar, Sharon L. Sanders, and M. Hayem), The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2004)

Background: Acute otitis media is one of the most common diseases in early infancy and...

 

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Non-antibiotic treatments for sore throat [Protocol] (with D. Francis, Chris Del Mar, and M. Thomas), The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2004)

This is the protocol for a review. The objective is as follows: 1. To determine...

 

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A systematic review of the diagnostic accuracy of natriuretic peptides for heart failure (with Jenny A. Doust, Eva Pietrzak, and Annette J. Dobson), Archives of Internal Medicine (2004)

Background The diagnosis of heart failure is difficult, with both overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis occurring commonly...

 

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Cholesterol-lowering therapy with pravastatin in patients with average cholesterol levels and established ischaemic heart disease: Is it cost-effective? (with Simon D. Eckermann, Sarah E. Mulray, R. John Simes, Andrew J. Martin, Adrienne C. Kirby, Jane P. Hall, Susan Caleo, Harvey D. White, and Andrew M. Tonkin), Medical journal of Australia (2002)

Objective: To measure the cost-effectiveness of cholesterol-lowering therapy with pravastatin in patients with established ischaemic...

 

Books

Evidence-based medical monitoring: From principles to practice (with Les Irwig and Jeffery Aronson) (2008)

Monitoring is a major component of management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease,...

 

Clinical thinking: Evidence, communication and decision-making (with Chris Del Mar and Jenny Doust), Health Sciences & Medicine papers (2006)

Clinicians are taught masses of facts, but not how to use them in the messy...

 

Evidence-based medicine: How to practice and teach EBM (with Sharon E. Straus, W. Scott Richardson, and R. Brian Haynes) (2005)

Extract:

This book is for clinicians at any stage of their training or career...

 

Evidence-based medicine workbook: Finding and applying the best research evidence to improve patient care (with Chris Del Mar and Janet Salisbury) (2003)

This attractive, full colour workbook provides a clear explanation of evidence-based medicine skills and concepts....

 

Decision making in health and medicine: Integrating evidence and values (with M. G. Myriam Hunink, Joanna E. Siegel, Jane C. Weeks, Joseph S. Pliskin, Arthur S. Elstein, and Milton C. Weinstein) (2001)

Decision making in health care involves navigating through a complex and tangled web of diagnostic...

 

Systematic reviews in health care: A practical guide (with Les Irwig, Chris Bain, and Graham Colditz) (2001)

What do we do if different studies appear to give different answers? When applying research...

 

Book Chapters

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Models of disease (with Chris Del Mar and Jenny Doust), Clinical thinking: evidence, communication, and decision-making (2006)

[Excerpt] What we will do here is set out some models of disease, and then...

 

Popular Press

Link

Reducing the waste in health care research, Presentation at Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia (2010)