Physical Therapy Evidence-Based Practice

The following represent a sampling of resources available for clinicians and students looking to integrate the principles of evidence-based practice into patient care management. Remember that the Pacific University Libraries is an excellent resource for searching and obtaining journal articles.

Stats Calculator (xls) | This excel file provides a stats calculator.

PTNow | Tools to advance physical therapist practice. 

Cochrane Database | Primary location of high-quality reviews on selected topics related to systematic reviews of the medical literature. Not PT-specific, but does include PT-related topics, especially under the Musculoskeletal Group.

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is a database of rehabiliation measures.

National Guideline Clearinghouse | Government site that publishes practice guidelines for all areas of health care practice. Many common disorders treated by physical therapists are addressed.

PEDro | Physiotherapy Evidence Database, a database that is "pre-filtered" to include details and abstracts of randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physical therapy. Many of the trials contained in the database have been rated for their level of methodological quality to assist the reader in interpreting which trials are most useful.

University of Toronto - Evidence-Based Practice | Contains links for a glossary of EBP terms, worksheets for critically appraising individual articles on diagnosis, therapy, prognosis, etc. among other resources, including handy online calculators for plugging in numbers to determine sensitivity, specificity, number needed to treat, odds ratios, etc.

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine | British site that contains many resources related to EBP.

Updated on 7/23/19.