What is The Cochrane Library World’s most comprehensive source for evidence-based health care Collection of high quality, E-B databases Provides systematically derived, reliable indications as to whether or not a particular treatment/intervention is more effective than another – considering side-effects, benefits
Click on Health DB
Systematic Reviews Identifies an intervention for specific disease/problem Determines whether/not intervention works Locate, appraise, synthesise evidence from as many studies as possible Summarise conclusions, provide a collation of evidence on the given topic
Systematic Reviews (2) Differ from other types of review: Adhere to strict design to make them more comprehensive Minimising chance of bias, ensuring reliability
Searching Systematic Reviews MeSH Search in Title Advanced Search
Mesh Search Click on Thesaurus
Thesaurus: Controlled terminology Click on the word “Hypertension”
Mesh Trees Click here to see what other terms you may wish to use
Mesh Tree
Scroll to top of page : choose term only OR Explode term
Can also use “Qualifier” which links to your main term
Comes back to this page with the correct term – then click on Mesh trees
Click on “Go”
To Combine your terms Click on “Search History”
Search History
Search Results
Click on “Record”
Click on the links to go to browse sub-headings of article
Graphs
Full text article – To Print Click on PDF
Clinical Evidence
How Clinical Evidence is put together Selecting topics: common/important clinical conditions Selecting questions: concerning the benefits/harms of preventative & therapeutic interventions Searching, appraising the literature: Cochrane, Medline etc for systematic reviews Summarise evidence, peer reviewed, edit to compile topics
Summary Page Presents the questions addressed, key messages and a list of interventions covered and categorised according to effectiveness