Top 20 POEMs Should Provide Better Context of Study Quality and Scope

Original Article: Top 20 Research Studies of 2017 for Primary Care Physicians Issue Date: May 1, 2018 See additional reader comments at: https://www.aafp.org/afp/2018/0501/p581.html To the Editor: Drs. Ebell and Grad have provided an excellent summary of patient-oriented evidence in their article and should be commended for their efforts to concisely update busy family physicians. Stating the study results without providing context of the study quality could make readers overconfident about the effectiveness of the OBP30 compared with the superior-quality evidence of other ambulatory or automated methods of office blood pressure measurement. A bottom-line answer reflective of the study quality and the background of previous studies might include, “This study was limited by lack of randomization or control, and further study would be of benefit before comparing OBP30 with other validated methods such as ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.”