Applying the evidence to your patient: The role of systematic reviews in your knowledge tool box

Abstract

This article explores how systematic reviews can provide a useful addition to a general practitioner’s knowledge toolbox and explores scenarios where systematic reviews can be used to help inform a decision. The article also explores how the trustworthiness of the information from a systematic review or indeed any knowledge resource, can be assessed, and describes some of the ways that systematic reviews are changing. A follow up article will explore, in more detail, how to appraise, understand and use the information in a systematic review.