EUnetHTA Adaptation Glossary (beta)

The process of deciding whether a piece of research can help you in answering your clinical question. There are three questions you need to ask about any kind of research:
- Is it valid?
- Is it important?
- Is it applicable to the patient?
Source: Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Oxford

The process of assessing and interpreting evidence by systematically considering its validity, results and relevance.

Critical Appraisal is the process of systematically examining research evidence to assess its validity, results and relevance before using it to inform a decision. In Slovenia, both assessment and critical appraisal have the same meaning and they are used for closing the gap between research and practice. Critical appraisal means that the bias needs to be avoided and the most appropriate design for studying the effectiveness of an intervention or treatment has to be implemented.

Critical appraisal is the process of systematically examining research evidence to assess its validity, results and relevance before using it to inform a decision. Critical appraisal is one step in the process of evidence-based decision making. Critical appraisal skills are necessary to determine what the evidence is for the local contest.

The process of assessing and interpreting evidence by systematically considering its validity, results and relevance is a central part of doing HTA. This definition is clear and should be preserved. The specific process of critical appraisal is probably done in different ways in different organisations/projects, but the main request must be that the process is reliable and is documented in a transparent way.