Evidence-Based Practice Mobile Apps

Free Mobile Apps for Evidence Based Practice

App	Purpose	Description / Contents	Compatibility	Where to download
ASCVD Risk Estimator	Patient education, discussions of health and potential motivators for change	Calculates patient risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) based upon lifestyle and other factors. May over-estimate risk according to Essential Evidence Plus.	Android iOS	Google Play Apple app store
CDC Vaccine Schedules	Preventive medicine, guidelines and recommendations	Immunization schedules and footnotes	Android iOS	Google Play Apple app store
Epocrates	Pharmacy, drug app	Drug information, interaction checker, pill id, clinical practice guidelines, formulary, athenatext, tables	Android iOS	Google Play Apple app store
USPSTF Prevention TaskForce	Preventive medicine, guidelines and recommendations	Provides U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for different populations	Android iOS	Google Play Apple app store
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)	Keeping current on relevant medical issues	Current health information updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)	Android iOS	Google Play Apple app store
Read by QxMD	Keeping current on relevant medical issues	Pushes publication notifications to your device based upon chosen medical publications or disciplines of interest	Android iOS	Google Play Apple app store

Websites for Evidence Based Practice

Website	Purpose	Description / Contents	URL
2 minute medicine	To read quick medical news and summaries of medical studies	Website containing reviews of medical articles with levels of evidence appraisal	http://www.2minutemedicine.com/
AHRQ	For current info on policies relating to the health care system in the United States	Government website dedicated to improving the safety and quality of America's health care system.	https://www.ahrq.gov/
CDC	To find current consumer relevant public health information	Government website containing info on a variety of public health topics such as vaccinations, traveler health needs, and more.	https://www.cdc.gov/
CDC Stacks	To find guidelines or other CDC funded research	Contains 12 difference collections of current and superseded medically relevant materials	https://stacks.cdc.gov/welcome
Center for EBM Tools/ Resources	For guidance on question formation, critical appraisal, and other EBM topics.	A collaborative effort from academics and clinicians in the UK. Contains many informative worksheets and guides to help clinicians work through EBM related research.	http://www.cebm.net/category/ebm-resources/tools/
MedlinePlus	To find patient education materials in multiple languages	Excellent resource to refer patients to for authoritative health info.	https://medlineplus.gov/
Public Health Partners	To find health data, open access literature repositories, health education info, and more.	Multitude of links and resources related to areas of medicine and public health	https://www.publichealthsystems.org/keywords/public-health-partners
PubMed	To search for medical articles and abstracts	Collection of millions of citations maintained by the National Library of Medicine	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
RHI Hub	To find topics and evidence-based tools specifically targeting public health	Funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to be a national clearinghouse on rural health issues.	https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/

Other Useful EBM Tools

Tool	What	Why	Example(s)
Citation managers	Software that allows you to compile collections of citations and use them in documents according to different citation styles.	You may be asked to perform research culminating in a publication. Familiarity with a citation manager can make this process easier by allowing you to cite and save information efficiently.	EndNote Basic/Web/Online https://access.clarivate.com/login?app=endnote ·Zotero https://www.zotero.org/ Mendeley https://www.mendeley.com/
Journal selectors	Online tools that allow you to paste in the abstract of a paper and receive suggestions of places to publish the paper.	Excellent brainstorming tools if you are considering publishing a paper, but are not sure about which journals you should attempt to publish your paper in.	Journal/Author Name Estimator (Jane): http://jane.biosemantics.org/ EndNote matching feature: https://access.clarivate.com/login?app=endnote (must have a free EndNote Web account to use) Edanz Journal Selector (Beta): http://www.edanzediting.com/journal_selector Elsevier Journal Finder: https://journalfinder.elsevier.com/ Springer Journal Selector: http://www.springer.com/authors/journal+authors/helpdesk?SGWID=0-1723213-12-817204-0 PubReMiner – Requires you to first find MeSH headings/related PMIDs in MeSH on Demand: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MeSHonDemand.html Then plug into PubMed PubReMiner: http://hgserver2.amc.nl/cgi-bin/miner/miner2.cgi
Critical Appraisal Tools	Critical appraisal tools allow you to quickly appraise various article types.	If you are part of a journal club, or if you need help assessing an article, CASP checklists can help guide you.	CASP Checklists: http://www.casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists Critical Appraisal of Studies Using Laboratory Animal Models: https://academic.oup.com/ilarjournal/article/55/3/405/644697?login=false AMSTAR 2 for systematic reviews: https://amstar.ca/Amstar-2.php Arrive 2 Checklists: https://arriveguidelines.org/resources/author-checklists Critical appraisal tool to assess the quality of cross-sectional studies: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/12/e011458 Methodological quality and synthesis of case series and case reports: https://ebm.bmj.com/content/23/2/60 Methodological index for non-randomized studies (MINORS): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1445-2197.2003.02748.x QUADAS-2 for systematic reviews: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/projects/quadas/quadas-2/ Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews (ROBIS): https://www.bristol.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/projects/robis/ CEBM Critical Appraisal tools: https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/resources/ebm-tools/critical-appraisal-tools STARD 2015: An Updated List of Essential Items for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy Studies: https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/ Case Series Studies Quality Appraisal Checklist: https://www.ihe.ca/research-programs/rmd/cssqac/cssqac-about NIH Study Quality Assessment Tools: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/study-quality-assessment-tools The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses: https://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical_epidemiology/oxford.asp ROBINS-I tool (Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies - of Interventions): https://www.riskofbias.info/welcome/home
Impact factor tools	The impact of articles and journals is shown by how many people have cited them. Official impact factors are assigned by Thomson Reuters. Not all journals have official impact factors.	Impact of a journal can give you an idea of how many people your article will reach. The tools to the right aren’t official impact factor tools, but they do give you an idea of the impact of various publications.	Google Scholar metrics: https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/metrics.html iCite (new from NIH): https://icite.od.nih.gov/ SCImago Journal Rankings: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php

Other Useful EBM Topics

Topic	What	Why
Question formation	FINERMAPS PICO(T)	Remember FINERMAPS -feasible, interesting, novel, ethical, relevant, manageable, appropriate, potential value, publishability, and systematic. You may also use the acronym PICO(T) as a tool to help form your question - patient/population, intervention, comparison/control, outcome, and time.
EBM pyramid	A pyramid detailing the levels of evidence produced by different study design types. Studies with the highest levels of evidence are at the top, while studies producing lower levels of evidence are at the bottom.	If you’re searching in a database, PubMed for example, for clinical guidance, it is good practice to limit to article types with high levels of evidence. These include Systematic reviews, meta analyses, RCTs, etc.
Predatory publishing	Refers to fraudulent publishers who pose as producers of legitimate academic journals.	Predatory publishers prey on potential authors for publication fees. Always keep your wits about you and thoroughly research a journal before publishing with them. Signs of authenticity may be that a journal is indexed in Medline (in PubMed); however, not all legitimate journals are indexed in Medline. Be wary if a journal requires a hefty fee in exchange for publication. Know that some journals do legitimately ask for fees for open access publishing, as your fee offsets the loss they incur by offering your article for free to the public; however, it is good practice to think critically when choosing journals to submit publications to.
Open access	Theoretically refers to articles and journals that publish scholarly articles that are free to the public. There are many types of open access, including journals that agree to immediately release your article to the public, those who agree to release it after a period of time, etc. Review specific journal author sections for their open access information.	Publishing in open access journals allows more people to find, read, and cite your article efficiently. It may not always be reasonable to publish in open access journals, especially if there is a fee involved, but this is a term that you will frequently see if you intend to publish any research. Note that some institutions offer grants for authors to publish their articles as open access publications.