Best Evidence TopicsBest Evidence Topics

BETS Submission Information


 

Contact us and submit a question or a full Cardiac BET

 Do you have a clinical question that you think would made a good topic for a BET. Before you send us a question, have a look at the way we format our BETs. Then submit a 3 part question to us, including your details as the potential author. You will then have 1 year to complete the BET and once complete you will appear as the author of this topic on the www.bestbets.org website. If it is good enough you may also get it published in one of our paper journals that publish BETS too !! So give it a go and submit a cardiac BET to us.

Click Here to Submit a Question to BestBets 

If you are not sure about any of the required information you can submit a partial question to Joel Desmond who will help to fill in the missing information. Click here to email Joel.

Submission Information.

The BET submission form is identical to the one below. The form shown here is inactive as it is only for demonstration purposes to show what information is required for submission. Below the form is further information on the structure and format of questions and reports.

 Example

Please enter the details in the fields below.
Title: 
 
Report by: 
Position: 
Search by: 
Position: 
Institution: 
 
Date submitted: 
   
 
Status: 
Date completed: 
   
 
Three part question: 
 
Next step: 
Continue submitting entire BET
Only submit the BET question
Cancel submission and discard data
 
 

Click below to submit this BET.
 

Full details of the structure and creation process for a BET review are given here.

BETs are similar to the Critically Appraise Topic (CAT) devised by Sackett et al. They are modified for use in Emergency Medicine, where many of the questions raised by the varied clinical workload are not addressed by high quality clinical trials. BETs allow the inclusion of lower quality evidence, by listing weaknesses of papers included for evaluation. The same rigorous approach to finding papers is taken. It should be noted, however, that BETs are not systematic reviews of the sort conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration, and therefore include only published evidence.In a busy specialty, with a wide variety of clinical problems, some minor and not covered by widely publicised guidelines, BETs allow clinicians rapid access to the best available evidence, summarised in a patient-centred way.The 3 part questionCentral to the creation of a BET review is the posing and refinement of the question to be asked. It should be concise, precise and able to be answered from the literature. The format is shown below.

 

General Question
Clinical problem
Is a haematoma block the best way to reduce a Colles fracture
3 part question
Patient characteristic
In [elderly patients with a Colles fracture]
Intervention(s) or Defining Question
Is [a haematoma block better than a Biers block]
Relevant Outcome(s)
At [reducing pain during manipulation and decreasing the need for remanipulation]

 

The BET report format Once the literature has been comprehensively searched, and relevant papers found, the best evidence is summarised in a standard format. Together with details of the review's author and the date of creation, this forms the final report (shown below).

 

Best Evidence Topic Report
Title
 
Report by
 
Search checked by
 
Clinical scenario
 
Three part question
 
Search strategy
 
Search outcome
x papers found of which y irrelevant and z of insufficient quality for inclusion
Relevant papers
 

 


Author, date and country
Patient group
Study type (level of evidence)
Outcomes
Key results
Study weaknesses
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 


Comment
 
Clinical bottom line
 
References
 

 

BETs in use

BETs can be used by clinicians at the point of patient contact. They can be relied upon as being an unbiased, up-to-date summary of the best evidence for treatment or diagnostic choices. They are quick to search and read. BETs offer several clear advantages, therefore, over textbooks held in departmental libraries, or ad hoc personal knowledge, half-remembered from a journal read several months ago. In the Accident & Emergency Department of Paris University, where BETs were devised, the review of BETs written by staff regularly informs and changes departmental policies, as well as indicating avenues for research. What constitutes best evidence is constantly changing, and BETs are therefore reviewed at regular intervals - generally between 6 and 12 months, using the same standard search strategies as used in the original compilation of the review.