John McDonald

Goals and Objectives

• To briefly review the current status of acupuncture effectiveness/efficacy research.
• To briefly review the current state of acupuncture mechanism research and explore the ways mechanism research can be used in communicating with other health professionals and patients.
• To understand why placebo-controlled randomised controlled trials consistently underestimate the effectiveness of acupuncture.
• To understand why randomised controlled trials are inappropriate for measuring effectiveness for complex interventions using examples from acupuncture, psychotherapy and surgery research.
• To explore the advantages and disadvantages of comparative trials and Bayesian network meta-analysis to inform clinical practice guideline development.

Objectives

•  To understand the relevance of acupuncture research evidence for acupuncture practitioners
• To develop an understanding of how acupuncture research is assessed for evidence quality using CONSORT, STRICTA and GRADE systems
• To develop an understanding of the current state of acupuncture research, and its strengths and weaknesses
• To examine the Acupuncture Evidence Project including the review methodology, process and outcomes.
• To be able to relate the evidence quality levels from the Acupuncture Evidence Project to planning advertising for clinical practices.

Outline

• Introduction to the Acupuncture Evidence Project, evidence levels, quality of evidence, CONSORT and STRICTA reporting systems, risk of bias assessment and evidence quality assessment using the GRADE system
• The Acupuncture Evidence Project: background, methodology, process, outcomes and the significance of the evidence level outcomes
• Applying evidence levels from the Acupuncture Evidence Project to advertising; Australian and New Zealand advertising guidelines and how to ensure that therapeutic claims in advertising are evidence-based
• Different sources of evidence: Systematic reviews, meta-analyses and network meta-analyses and how these inform clinical practice guidelines; Clinical practice guidelines as evidence; Available resources on acupuncture research and how to use these to communicate effectively with patients, other health professionals and health policy-makers; International collaborations to create resources on acupuncture research for practitioners
• Questions and discussion