
EBM Toolbox
Audio-visual materials
Video Interview with Professor Furukawa: Deputy Editor of Evidence-Based Mental Health
A nine-minute video interview with Professor Furukawa was recently published on the homepage for the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health, as part of an introduction to its new editorial board. Dr Andrea Cipriani, Editor of the journal, interviews Professor Furukawa about his personal and professional viewpoints. Please visit http://ebmh.bmj.com/site/about/edboard.xhtml to watch this video.
JAMAevidence Podcast
Two podcasts by Professor Furukawa are available at JAMAevidence homepage at http://books.mcgraw-hill.com/podcast/jamaevidence/.
- A 16-minute podcast on "Diagnostic Tests: Interview With Dr Toshi A. Furukawa"
- A 9-minute podcast on "Measuring Patients' Experience: Interview With Dr Toshi A. Furukawa"
KYOTO-U OPENCOURSEWARE
I have prepared an introductory video series for evidence-based mental health, covering such topics as:
- Why evidence?
- Human observation
- Evidence has a hierarchy
- How strong is evidence?
- How can I practice evidence-based mental health?
- A clinical scenario
- Clinical questions
- How to search the literature
- Thought experiment: ceteris paribus
- Internal validity
- Quantifying the results
- External validity
Each video lasts less than 10 minutes and you can listen to them in your spare time. Please enjoy!
Worksheets for critical appraisal
For journal clubs where you do not start from a patient, you can use the following worksheets [in English].
- For articles about treatment using RoB2 [RCT]
- For articles about treatment [RCT]
- For articles about treatment [systematic review and pairwise meta-analysis]
- For articles about treatment [systematic review and network meta-analysis]
- For articles about diagnosis
- For articles about prognosis
- For articles about prediction model
Please feel free to download and use the following worksheets [in Japanese].
- For articles about treatment
- --- You can learn how to use this critical appraisal work sheet with Dr Aran Tajika's PPT [in Japanese]
- For articles about diagnosis
- For articles about prognosis [cohort study]
- For articles about side effects [case-control study]
- For systematic reviews [pairwise meta-analysis]
- --- You can learn how to use this critical appraisal work sheet with Dr Aran Tajika's PPT [in Japanese]
Useful spreadsheets
Professor Robert Newcombe (Emeritus Professor of Biostatistics, Cardiff University) has provided a very useful suite of spreadsheets to calculate 95% confidence intervals for proportions and related quantities. Professor Newcombe has kindly allowed us to provide the link here. https://profrobertnewcomberesources.yolasite.com/
NNT Calculator can calculate RR, OR, RD and NNT, from a 2*2 table.
NNT Calculator2 can calculate NNT, from effect size (SMD). [Furukawa (1999) Lancet]
--- You can undersatnd how this works in a vividly visual and interactive way here. Must-see to understand the logic! (You can change the control event rate by clicking on the symbol after "Slide me". Please experiment with various effect sizes and control events to see how NNT changes.)
NNT Calculator3 can calculate NNT/NNH, from OR or RR and CER.
You may also find the following two conversion calculators useful and convenient.
LR Calculator can calculate LR+, LR-, Se and Sp, from a 2*2 table.
SSLR Calculator can calculate stratum-specific likelihood ratios (also known as multi-level likelihood ratios) for 3 - 6 strata.
Post-test probability Calculator can calculate posterior probability, from SSLR and prior probability.
Proportion in normal range from threshold, mean and SD of a normal distribution. [Furukawa et al (2005) Int Clin Psychopharmacol]
One-stop spreadsheet that enables all the above calculations in Japanese is available here. [in Japanese]
Prediction model for remission among patients initiating antidepressant pharmacotherapy [based on Furukawa et al (2019 ) Psychological Medicine]