2. General Rules
Resources
Customized Search Engines
Search at the point of care
Alert Services
Search strategy
Tips for searching
Aboubakr Elnashar
3. EBM tools proliferating
Deciding on “right” tool(s) is difficult as
products vary in
Complexity
Content
Accessibility
Intended audience.
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4. Keep it simple
Resources they can access:
Free is better
Subscribed by their institute
Accessible at the point of care
You need to select from among
sources, not to include all of them
Select a framework
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5. I. Primary Research Sites
PubMed
Ovid
SUMSearch
Google Scholar
Medline II. Sites to assist in interpreting
the data (EBM toolkits):
University of Alberta EBM
site
University of Toronto EBM
site
New York Academy of
Medicine EBM Initiative
Society of General Internal
Medicine site
III. Sites with “Ready Synthesized
Data”
National Guideline Clearing House
Cochrane Database
Bandolier
ACP Journal Club
PIER
Society of General Internal Medicine
Website
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7. •www.guideline.gov
•A public resource for evidence-based practice
guidelines.
•Conduct a keyword search OR browse by
disease/condition, treatment/intervention
•Homepage contains weekly news updates on
recently submitted guidelines that have either been
reviewed or are new to the database
•FDA Advisories – on recent changes or alerts on
prescription drugs
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9. www.pubmed.gov
•A free, public database of clinical/biomedical abstracts
•Includes over 4,800 journals
•Provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) &
the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
•Can search on any medical topic in this database
•Provides a tutorial & help section to guide you through a
PubMed search.
•Can begin with general keywords OR use the Medical
Subject Headings
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10. •Limits tab is very helpful when searching the
database. Use it and become familiar with it.
What publication dates? Historical or recent?
Only in the last 5 years
What language?
What journal subset?
•Contains Subsets of Journals: good for
narrowing your journal selections
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11. •Clinical Queries feature:
for searching evidence-based literature –
RCTs and clinical reviews – built-in
search feature that limits search results.
•Simplifies method entering your
keywords, selecting category (therapy,
diagnosis, prognosis, etc.) and scope –
PubMed will do the rest……
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15. www.cochrane.org
•Updated collection of EBM Databases
•based on the best available information about
healthcare interventions
•They explore the evidence for & against the
effectiveness & appropriateness of treatments
(medications, surgery, education, etc) in specific
circumstances.
•Published on a quarterly basis & made available both
on CD-ROM & the Internet
•Can browse & search abstracts of reviews free of
charge
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16. •Cochrane reviews relevant to reproductive
health can also be found in the WHO
Reproductive Health Library, which is available
free of charge to health workers in developing
countries by e-mailing RHL@who.ch.
•The premier resource for systematic reviews
(and RCTs) is the Cochrane Library, which
should be searched first.
•The Cochrane Library contains the following
components for searching for systematic
reviews.
1. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
(CDSR)
2. Database of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE)
3. Health Technology Assessment Database (HTA)Aboubakr Elnashar
29. On the left is the outline – a very good way to navigate through the topic review.
FOCUS here to find answers to the questions or problems.
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40. should have a systematic &
structured approach to achieve a
high degree of comprehensiveness
and to avoid bias in selection of
studies.
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41. 1. Formulate clinical question(s)
2. Search for guidelines, If no relevant guidelines
3. Search for systematic reviews using:
- the internet
- the Cochrane Library
- other databases
4. Search for primary studies using:
- the Cochrane Library
- Medline and EMBASE
- CINAHL, BNI and MIDIRS
- Science Citation Index
- other databases
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42. •National Guidelines Clearinghouse:
www.guideline.gov/index.asp
•Turning Research Into Practice (TRIP):
http://www.tripdatabase.com/
•RCOG: http://www.rcog.org.uk/
•Guidelines in O&G:
http://archive.uwcm.ac.uk/uwcm/lb/pep/maternal/index.html
•http://matweb.hcuge.ch/matweb/endo/cours_4e_mreg/obstetrics
_guidelines.htm
•National Electronic Library for Health: http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/
•OMNI: http://omni.ac.uk/ (click advanced search and specify:
Practice Guidelines in Resource Type)
•CMA Infobase: http://www.cma.ca/cpgs/
•Guidelines and Guidelines in Practice:
http://www.eguidelines.co.uk/
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43. If no relevant reviews are located on the Cochrane Library
the next step is to search alternative sources that
summarise and appraise systematic reviews.
These include the journals
1. The internet service TRIP should be searched,
as it covers both UK and US evidence-based
reviews as well as guidelines.
2. ACP Journal Club and Evidence Based Medicine,
which are also searchable on the electronic database
Best Evidence.
3. Clinical Evidence published by the BMJ is a high-
quality text that should also be searched; it
summarises the results of reviews and other levels of
evidence to answer specific clinical questions.
4. Medline and EMBASE will also need to be searched
for increased comprehensiveness.
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45. Decide the TYPE of question (Rx, Dx, Px,
…)
Chose the right database for the type of
question, e.g.,
Intervention: Cochrane Library, PubMed, …
Diagnostic: Common Diagnostic Strategies (in
BE), or PubMed: Clinical Queries
Prognosis, Etiology: PubMed: Clinical Queries
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46. •Combining Terms - AND
Use AND to combine similar concepts &
to narrow your search results
sleep deprivation AND ICU
•Use simple search terms
• Check spelling
• Use quotation marks around exact
phrases
• Use search limits
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47. (Population OR synonym 1 OR …) AND
(Intervention OR synonym 1 OR …) AND
(Comparator OR synonym 1 OR …) AND
(Outcome OR synonym 1 OR …) AND
FILTER (for best study type)
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48. AND = both terms
OR = either term
Use OR to join terms to broaden search
results
ICU OR Intensive Care Unit
NOT = not this term
(ADJacent, NEAR, … = AND + close)
* George Boole (a man) is claimed to have invented “logic”
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49. If you want
cheese AND fruit
Which do you ask for?
cheese AND (apple OR pear OR melon)
(cheese AND apple) OR pear OR melon
What does PubMed do with if AND and OR?
Cheese AND apple OR pear
(Look at DETAILS tab)
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50. Search on Title only
Eg [ti]
(Others are [au] - author; [so], [yr], …)
‘Related Articles’ button
(PubMed)
Previously identified study (PubMed)
Look for the MeSH terms
MeSH browser
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