The Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (CEBM) at the University of Oxford defines Critical Appraisal Topic (CAT) as a short summary of an article from the literature, created to answer a specific clinical question while testing evidence for validity, clinical relevance, and applicability.
Critical appraisal is the thorough evaluation of search results to identify the best articles on a particular search topic. Critical Appraisal Tools (CATs) can help with this evaluation.
Critical Appraisal Skills Programme
Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) is produced by Solutions for Public Health (SPH), a not-for-profit NHS public health organisation in the UK. CASP is valuable because it provides a different evaluation tool for various types of research studies.
Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (CEBM) - Levels of Evidence
The CEBM 'Levels of Evidence' document sets out one approach to systematising this process for different question types.
Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (CEBM) - Critical appraisal tools
Contains useful tools and downloads for the critical appraisal of medical evidence. Example appraisal sheets are provided together with several helpful examples.
