The Medline search yielded only 3 documents, whereas the search with Hotbot produced 26 web matches, and AltaVista offered 155 web pages pertaining to CATs. Upon review of the many CAT websites, I was struck more by their commonality than diversity. Purebred CAT websites tend to be well organized, incorporating EBM principles. They begin with a clinical scenario, leading to a specific question. Several of the websites provide a data table, which functions as a calculator enabling the CAT browser to add data to recalculate these statistics.
Some sites have reviews of systematic reviews.
Club CATS follow the journal club format with a critical review of one or two articles addressing a clinical question or topic. CATS are grouped in 13 clinical areas, one of which is dedicated to emergency medicine. There are 11 more clinical areas in development, but these are not yet available for browsing. Sixty-three CATS are listed alphabetically by disorder, ranging from alcoholic hepatitis to venous thromboembolism. Each CAT poses questions as to the definition of the study sample, the length and completeness of follow-up, objectivity of outcome measures and adjustment for potential confounders.