Critical Appraisal of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)

Workshop Overview

Book now to join a CASP session, looking at what RCT's are and how to read and understand them. Taking place over 3 ½ hours, the session will be lead by CASP Trainer, Erica Ison. There will be an introductory presentation, small group work appraising a published RCT paper, followed by group discussion and feedback.

Learning Objectives

• To become familiar with the CASP randomised controlled trial (RCT) checklist.
• To appraise a randomised controlled trial using the new CASP RCT checklist.
• To be able to identify the key issues about whether the results of a randomised controlled trial are generalisable.
• To increase confidence about using critical appraisal to decide whether the results of a randomised controlled trial are robust enough to be used in routine practice.

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Training Course Location

Participant places are limited in each virtual workshop to ensure optimal interaction between participants and lead trainer. CPD certification (equivalent to 3.5 hours) is available if required.

This workshop will take place online, and joining instructions will be sent to you after completion of booking. Participants will be sent pre-reading of a published paper to complete before the start of the session.

Why Critical Appraisal? 

Everyone wants good health and effective healthcare. How do we know, however, whether an intervention is truly effective? Many interventions are given with the best of intention but have later been found to be ineffective and therefore a waste of finite healthcare resources.

Moreover, instances of harm from giving certain ‘treatments’ are being reported. It is important that interventions are evaluated in clinical trials before they are widely disseminated. If health-policy decisions are to be truly informed, they need to be based on the best available research evidence; however, how can we decide whether the evidence is trustworthy?

This is where critical appraisal can help. Critical appraisal skills enable you to assess systematically the trustworthiness, relevance and results of published papers.

This course will be taught in English and will take place in GMT.

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