Reflections of a virtual CAT
On the 24th April 2020 we were to hold our first MSK virtual Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) meeting. By this point virtual/ remote meetings are the new normal. However as with all “first times” it would be interesting to see how doing this particular meeting remotely, would be affected compared to us running this normally at Keele University.
This meeting was to be a little different, not least due to far fewer numbers of colleagues present. As ever the phenomenal Kay Stevenson, not content with mediocre do-the-same-thing-just-remotely, oh no we would tackle the process of “doing” a CAT, remotely. In a couple of hours. I got more coffee. And flapjack.
This would involve a process many will be familiar with, in the format of generating and refining a clinical question, utilising a PICO format (population, intervention, comparison, outcomes), to inform the search for the evidence, whittling it down to appropriate articles, critiquing the evidence and finally reaching a clinical bottom line, informed by the best available evidence.
And we did it (mostly). As we did not have our library resources immediately available, we did the best we could, each of us searching different databases, feeding back to the main group, sharing the articles for each of us to read.
We are pretty certain we captured the literature that we needed to, but we shall call upon our esteemed library colleagues to repeat the search, in the usual and more formal format to ensure we are not missing any key articles before we write the question up and share, through our normal channels on the Keele CAT website.
The key reflection here is that the process was an overwhelming success, facilitated by early group consensus of deciding a clinical question and the subsequent refinement of said question. It was proved once again that social distancing does not have to mean distance from progress, results, learning, continuing with our work, collaboratively.
I have had many coffees during this pandemic, however, I for one very much look forward to that first barista-level coffee with colleagues, whom I very much consider friends, at previously accepted social distances. Probably with baked, sugary edibles. Whilst technology that allows virtual interactions has proven well beyond its worth in the current pandemic, both at professional and personal levels, (credit here goes to our IT colleagues for getting many systems off the ground and virtual meetings/consultations a reality) there is nothing quite like face to face human interaction, at less than 2 meters.
Stay safe and hopefully see more of you at the next (virtual) CAT meeting. Until then, here is the link to our work to date: https://www.keele.ac.uk/pcsc/research/impactacceleratorunit/evidenceintopracticegroups/alliedhealthprofessionals/
