Our method
In this section
Step 1: Selecting a topic
Step 2: Asking the right questions
Step 3: Finding the evidence
Step 4: Making sense of the evidence
Step 5: Presenting the answers
New medical studies are published every day. How do you sort through the mountain of research to find facts you can trust? And once you find a study, how do you understand its findings and judge how good it is?
It's hard to know how to make good decisions about your health. The method used to create Best Health is designed to make sure that you get the most accurate, up-to-date information on how well different treatments work, written in language that is clear and easy to understand.
Best Health looks at medical research that is published in journals all over the world. It does this by using Clinical Evidence, a collection of the best research evidence for doctors. Clinical Evidence gives doctors and other health care workers a good, up-to-date summary of what's known and what isn't about treating a wide range of clinical conditions. It's published by the BMJ Publishing Group.
Clinical Evidence looks at all the evidence and decides how well treatments work, whether the research is good enough and how serious the side effects are. Sometimes no one knows for certain whether a treatment works because the research that's been done isn't good enough. Or it could be that not enough research has been done.
Best Health adds to the Clinical Evidence research. It makes the evidence easy to read. It also enables patients to see the same research evidence that doctors see. Clinical Evidence gives doctors and other health care workers a good up-to-date summary of what's known and what isn't about treating a wide range of clinical conditions. It's published by the BMJ Publishing Group.
We follow a strict process to develop each topic on Best Health. Here are the key steps:
Step 1: Selecting a topic
Best Health covers serious, long-lasting illnesses that affect many people in the UK. It also looks at more minor conditions that affect a lot of people, such as coughs and colds. We are guided by national health statistics, doctors and patient groups. The conditions we look at have been included in Clinical Evidence.
Step 2: Asking the right questions
We cover the treatment options for each condition and give background information to explain the condition itself. Best Health works with the Clinical Evidence team, an international team of doctors, and patient groups to find out what matters most to doctors and patients. They might ask questions such as: What does the research say about exercise helping people with heart failure? What are the side effects of treatments for childhood asthma?Step 3: Finding the evidence
All our information is based on research evidence and high-quality medical papers. Here is how we gather this evidence:Information about treatments
This information in Best Health is based on Clinical Evidence. To answer each question about a treatment, the Clinical Evidence medical information specialists do a thorough search for studies that measure how well treatments work. First the information specialists look for the best types of studies (called systematic reviews) and other good-quality studies called randomised controlled trials. If there are none of these studies, the information specialists look for other studies and say how much they can be relied on and what problems there are with the research. Once the research has been collected, the information specialists weigh up the evidence and take out the studies that aren't good enough. They do this using a method developed by experts in how research is carried out.1 2 This thorough research helps us find out which treatments work best for a condition, and also why certain treatments work. If you would like to read more about how we search for and select studies, see the Clinical Evidence website (http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com).Information about conditions
The information that we provide to explain medical conditions is based on high-quality original medical papers and textbooks chosen by our information specialists. On each page of the site, you will find the details of the sources of information we have used.Step 4: Making sense of the evidence
The research evidence for each treatment is studied and summarised by a doctor who is an important expert in a particular specialty. Each topic is then checked by at least three more doctors. Then, a leading expert provides advice on how doctors can use this research evidence. We ask people with the condition to tell us what they think the important questions are about their condition and treatments. A team of experienced medical writers makes sure this evidence can easily be understood by the general public and writes the extra information that explains each condition.Deciding which treatments work
We group treatments into categories according to how good the evidence is that they work. We use slightly different language to describe the categories than you'll find in Clinical Evidence, but the treatments are grouped in the same way. Here is an explanation of what each category means:| Category | What it means |
|---|---|
| Treatments that work | There's clear evidence from randomised controlled trials that the treatment works. Also, the evidence shows that the chance of problems is small compared with the benefits. |
| Treatments that are likely to work | There is some evidence that the treatment works. But we can't be as certain that the treatment works as we can for those listed under 'Treatments that work'. |
| Treatments that work, but whose harms may outweigh benefits | There's some good evidence that the treatment works. But there's also good evidence that it can have serious side effects. Doctors and patients need to weigh up the benefits and risks according to what each person needs and wants. |
| Treatments that need further study | We don't know if the treatment is effective because there is either too little research to tell or the quality of the research is not good enough. |
| Treatments that are unlikely to work | There is evidence that the treatments probably don't work. But we can't be as certain that the treatments don't work as we can for the ones in the group 'Treatments that are likely to be ineffective or harmful'. |
| Treatments that are likely to be ineffective or harmful | Clear evidence shows the treatments don't work or will be harmful. |
Step 5: Presenting the answers
All the information on Best Health is edited by a team of editors and checked by our doctors.
The information about drugs has been reviewed by a team of qualified pharmacists working in association with PharmacyHealthLink. PharmacyHealthLink is a leading national charity that works to improve the health of the public through the expertise of pharmacists and their staff. This is medical research evidence you can use, put together by a team you can trust.