Medical searching Kazem Heidari

Reading in medicine Browsing  Reading for fun of it  Books and journals are used. Reading for information  Approach the literature answers for specific question  Focused searching Reading for research  Comprehensive view of the existing state of knowledge  Reviews (systematic) are used

Reading journals Browsing mode –Printed version is easier. Problem solving mode –Electronic version is easier.

Question search Answer The better formulated your question is, the more relevant your “ answer ” is likely to be.

TYPES OF QUESTIONS Background Foreground

Background and foreground questions Background Foreground Experience with Condition

Five Information Sources Clinicians Must Use 1.Journals: general, specialized, and summary 2.MEDLINE, EMBASE and/or other major database service(s) 3.Internet: search engines, directories, government sites, etc. 4.Textbooks (slowly changing factual information) 5.“Personal collection” to support routine activities (e.g., personal specialty reprint collection)

Electronic Resources Databases Electronic textbooks Electronic journals –Free –Subscription services

Benefits of electronic resources We focus on online rather than print products because they are generally easier to search and more current than print products

Search strategy

Search Strategy A systematic process used to find the most relevant information on a topic: –Useful reference sources, –Select works appropriate for the research need, –Locates information –Evaluates the relevance of the information found

Principles are similar but Methods are different

Question

Specify your search goal SensitiveSpecific

Question Specify your search goal SensitiveSpecific Selecting Database Bibliographic Value added

Question Specify your search goal SensitiveSpecific Selecting Database Bibliographic Value added Constructing the search strategy

Selecting the most important and relevant words

Constructing the search strategy Selecting the most important and relevant words Broad searching

Constructing the search strategy Selecting the most important and relevant words Broad searching Investigating the results

Constructing the search strategy Selecting the most important and relevant words Broad searching Investigating the results Few results

Constructing the search strategy Selecting the most important and relevant words Broad searching Investigating the results Few results Browse

Constructing the search strategy Selecting the most important and relevant words Broad searching Investigating the results Few results Browse Change the words Finding synonyms Change database Apply

Constructing the search strategy Selecting the most important and relevant words Broad searching Investigating the results Few results Large amount of results

Boolean searching Limit fieldsSearch filters

Databases Free Not free OR Prefiltered Nonfiltered OR Bibliographic Fulltext

ALL RESOURCES ARE SUITABLE FOR ALL TYPES OF QUESTIONS?

Where and how clinical questions arise? clinical findings etiology differential diagnosis diagnostic tests prognosis therapy prevention patient experience and meaning self-improvement

Bibliographic Medline Cinahl Embase

Medline By US National Library of Medicine over 11,000,000 citations of both clinical and preclinical studies. comprehensive coverage of medical journals and because it is readily accessible. American bias

Medline  Free of charge using Pubmed  commercial vendor  OVID  Silver Platter.

CINAHL Produced by Cinahl Information – Nursing and allied health literature 1982-present Bibliographic with some full-text 500+ nursing journal titles Your health sciences library subscribes You can pay for the service

EMBASE Elsevier Science Publishers, Netherlands Type of Database: Bibliographic Numbers of Journals: 3500 Bias: European in focus Subject Coverage: Strong on Pharmaceutical and Clinical Medicine Overlap with MEDLINE estimated at between 25 and 40% 75% of References contain Abstracts

ACP journal club –Prefiltered database –since 1991 –General purpose: select from the biomedical literature articles that report original studies and systematic reviews that warrant immediate attention by physicians attempting to keep pace with important advances in internal medicine

Trip database: –Allows users to rapidly and easily identify high quality medical literature from a wide range of sources

Search in trip pic

EMBASE MEDLINE UNIVERSE OF BIOMEDICAL JOURNALS 30,000

Grey Literature

Full text EBSCOhost Cochrane Library