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Evidence-Based Health Care

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Clinical Informatics Study Guide

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Abstract

Evidence-based health care is the foundation of clinical practice. Clinical informaticians must understand the benefits and limitations of study design, assess and grade the quality of the evidence base, and how research results are incorporated into guidelines to inform the design and development of applied informatics tools such as clinical decision support systems. While traditional approaches to evidence generation are still foundational, there are also ways to generate evidence without conducting a clinical trial such as through the use of electronic health record data in the context of learning health systems. More than ever, evidence is being produced and evolving rapidly. Thus, it is challenging to navigate the complexities of how to take mixed evidence and guidelines and transform them into informatics tools that consider benefits, risks, and potential biases. This chapter examines the methods and processes for generating evidence and translating them into clinical guidelines and practice. The chapter further discusses the role of clinical informatics in supporting evidence-based health care delivery.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

    Arlene E. Chung

  2. UNC Hospitals Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program, UNC Hospitals, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Arlene E. Chung & Christopher S. Evans

  3. Department of Emergency Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Christopher S. Evans

  4. Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    P. Jon White

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    P. Jon White

  6. Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, Rockville, MD, USA

    Edwin Lomotan

Authors
  1. Arlene E. Chung
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  2. Christopher S. Evans
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  3. P. Jon White
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  4. Edwin Lomotan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arlene E. Chung .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    John T. Finnell

  2. Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Brian E. Dixon

Questions for Discussion

Questions for Discussion

  1. 1.

    Describe the differences between cross-sectional and cohort study design.

  2. 2.

    Define the benefits of randomization in randomized clinical trials.

  3. 3.

    What are the strongest and weakest study designs in the hierarchy of evidence?

  4. 4.

    What is the Cochrane Collaborative? And how is their work used to guide evidence-based practice?

  5. 5.

    What are the methods to grade and assess the quality of evidence reported in clinical research?

  6. 6.

    Describe the Institute of Medicine standards for trustworthiness for the development of clinical practice guidelines.

  7. 7.

    How can learning health systems leverage EHR data to generate evidence compared to traditional clinical studies?

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Chung, A.E., Evans, C.S., White, P.J., Lomotan, E. (2022). Evidence-Based Health Care. In: Finnell, J.T., Dixon, B.E. (eds) Clinical Informatics Study Guide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93765-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93765-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-93764-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-93765-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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