What disease or scientific area are you studying, and why was that chosen as your priority area for the health of the public?

Chemical Lumbar Sympathectomies for Non-reconstructable Ischaemic Limb Pain

Rapid Literature Review

This is an individual assessment.

The purpose of this assessment is to ensure you can accurately retrieve, evaluate, understand and synthesise previous work in the field you are studying.

We are particularly interested in your learning from the methods of those studies:

what designs they chose, what variables they chose, and how those methods met their aims or could be improved.

Educational aim(s) of assessment:

The rapid assembly of a literature review and synthesis, with critical appraisal of the medical and other relevant literature.
The practical application of literature review and critical appraisal skills to a timely, relevant problem in project definition or design for the project.

Defining a study question in your selected area of study, from a skilled analysis of clinical problems in that area of medical practice, the gaps in current knowledge and the relevant policy landscape.

Assessment Instructions

Your Rapid Literature Review should be 3000 words, +/-10% (not including references, tables or figures).

It should be focussed upon the field you are studying and include the following sections:

Background – what disease or scientific area are you studying, and why was that chosen as your priority area for the health of the public?

This should discuss the public health impact of the disease: the extent to which it impacts upon the health of the general public in terms of morbidity, mortality, incidence and prevalence.

Review question

Search methods – explaining how and where you searched, evidence of having planned your search, which search techniques you used and why, detailing your specific article inclusion/exclusion criteria, how many articles you found in each source, any modifications you made in your strategy as you went along, and a precise record of your main search strategy to be included as an appendix.

Review of the selected literature including (but not restricted to) critical appraisal of five papers, identified by you as most relevant and of high quality.

The review may include guidelines, but must include critical review of original research, such as the clinical and methodological strengths and weaknesses of the literature studied.

Synthesis of whole literature studied, including knowledge gained in relation to:

Your review question
Amount of good research in this area compared to the health need
Your protocol/study question
Implementation of your project.

References

To pass this assessment, your supervisor must acknowledge the standard of work produced as being at or above expected level in the “Overall Quality” criteria of the assessment form. If your assessment is noted as being below expected level, you will be offered a second attempt at the assessment.

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