The breadth of emergency medicine and the rapid growdi in relevant research makes an ability to assess new research findings particularly important for emergency physicians. Improvements in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction, evolution of thrombolytic use in acute stroke, and the demise of military antishock trousers for traumatic shock provide examples of the dynamic relationship between emergency medicine research and clinical practice. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of common research limitations and flaws relevant to emergency medicine. We explain and provide published examples of problems related to external validity, experimenter bias, publication bias, straw man comparisons, incorporation bias, randomization, composite outcomes, clinical importance versus statistical significance, and disease-oriented versus patient-oriented outcomes.
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