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PHAS 6013: Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Practice: Home

Physician Assistant Guide

For a list of affiliations and top journals see:

Physician Assistant Studies: Evidence-Based Practice Guide

Steps for acquiring evidence

  1. Identify a clinical problem
  2. Create a well-defined research question [using PICO]
  3. Translate PICO into a search strategy
    • Brainstorm and gather synonyms
    • Construct the search strategy
  4. Select most likely resources (databases)
  5. Tailor search strategy to database(s)
  6. Save search & export results to reference manager

What is a literature search?

systematic and thorough search of published literature in order to collect information about a particular topic.

Why do we do literature searches?

  • Create research proposals
  • Collect evidence on effectiveness of clinical treatments
  • To make a clinical decision
  • Gather information for presentations

AMA Style

See our AMA Style quick guide

Other resources:

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) - AMA

AMA Style Guide (University of Washington)