Health Informatics and Evidence-based Practice

Flashcards on key concepts from the lecture, including efficacy, effectiveness, RCTs, implementation science, and antibiotic prescribing

What is efficacy?

The power or ability to produce an effect, best tested in medicine with a randomized controlled trial.

What is effectiveness?

The degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result, best tested in medicine with a ‘real’ world trial.

What is the efficacy-effectiveness gap?

Differences in outcomes between patients treated in RCTs and those treated in the ‘real world’.

What is a strength of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)?

Experiment to reduce bias when testing treatment efficacy.

What is an alternative to Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)?

Non-restrictive recruitment criteria ensuring that people with previously ineligible characteristics are matched on both sides of the trial.

What is Implementation Science?

The study of methods of integration of research and evidence-based interventions into routine clinical practice.

What are facilitators of implementation?

Experienced leadership, detailed planning, team engagement, prioritization, and the provision of required resources.

What are obstacles to implementation?

Lack of commitment by management, a disorganized work culture, poor readiness to change, and poor team structure.

What are implementation challenges?

The implementation of research evidence to improve the health outcomes of disease and to prevent harm from the persistence of discredited treatments.

According to a Lancet 2013 study, what are the effects of amoxicillin when pneumonia is not suspected for acute lower-respiratory-tract infection?

Little benefit for acute lower-respiratory-tract infection in primary care both overall and in patients aged 60 years or more, and causes slight harms.