CATs are critical summaries of a research article. They are concise, standardized, and provide an appraisal of the research.
If a CAT already exists for an article, it can be read quickly and the clinical bottom line can be put to use as the clinician sees fit. If a CAT does not exist, the CAT format provides a template to appraise the article of interest.
Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically assessing the outcome of scientific research (evidence) to judge its trustworthiness, value and relevance in a particular context. Critical appraisal looks at the way a study is conducted and examines factors such as internal validity, generalizability and relevance.
Some initial appraisal questions you could ask are:
Second, you look at the study itself and ask the following general appraisal questions:
Appraisal is the third step in the Evidence Based Medicine process. It requires that the evidence found be evaluated for its validity and clinical usefulness.
What is validity?
What is reliability?
Reliability is the extent to which the results of the experiment are replicable. The research methodology should be described in detail so that the experiment could be repeated with similar results.