CRITICAL APPRAISAL

CRITICAL APPRAISAL is a core foundation of what we do. Understanding what we can trust within (or more precisely how much or how little confidence we should associate with) evidence and guidance represents a substantially different and necessary approach to medical information than the traditional acceptance at face value of what is cited and reported. There is now a large global community that understands this to varying degrees and an even larger global group of clinicians and citizens that doesn’t. But for us to provide the most useful information (at any degree of understanding the user has) we must apply CRITICAL APPRAISAL so we can provide accurate information.

We need to be CRITICAL of our CRITICAL APPRAISAL. We do critical appraisal for a purpose - informing others on what the best available information is and how it can inform healthcare decision-making. If a criticism can be made (technical fault) but does not have a material effect on bias in the specific case we should not criticize just because we can. We are most useful in our critical appraisal if we apply it where it matters. We also frequently question our critical appraisal criteria and adjust them (with global expert input and evidence checking) to continually learn and adapt so that we are critically appraising in the most useful way for our purpose.

Bonus word of the day: Brian Weiner suggested IMAGINE, noting: there was an event in Central Park sponsored by Yoko Ono, IMAGINE, attempting to create the world’s largest peace sign.

The pace of technology advancement is now greater than ever before and this IMAGINATION can be a reality in our lifetime. In the past few weeks I have met with multiple groups of people spanning the globe and combining the best among health care information and technology development who are working now on making this IMAGINATION a reality.