ssc in evidence based medicine - internet resources

Paula Funnellp.a.funnell@qmul.ac.uk

Faculty Liaison Librarian (Medicine and Dentistry)

www.library.qmul.ac.

uk

Guide to Internet sources of information

Categories of information resource

• Web search engines

• Electronic databases

• Clinical summaries

Web search engines

• Specifically ones which search across a range of good quality internet resources

• Several medicine specific search engines

• Provide huge variety of results• Beware quality of information.

– Is it evidence based? – Has it been critically appraised?

Databases

• Vast collections of references of published research

• Filters can be applied to narrow results down

• Searches can be combined and saved for future use

• References can be imported to EndNote

Clinical Summaries

• NOT source of primary research• Evidence has been read and

summarised• Information presented in a short

paragraph, or as little as a bullet point• Up-to-date and accurate sources of

clinical knowledge

Categories of information resource

You have each been allocated a resource from one of the different categories. Use the worksheet to guide you in familiarising yourself with the resource and be ready to report back to the group about it.

Categories of information resource

Web search engines• Google Scholar• Medline Plus• Evidence Search• Trip

Online Databases• Medline (PubMed)• Web of Science• The Cochrane Library

Clinical Summaries• Clinical Evidence• Clinical Knowledge

Summaries• Evidence Based Medicine

Web search engines

• Specifically ones which search across a range of good quality internet resources

• Several medicine specific search engines

• Provide huge variety of results• Beware quality of information.

– Is it evidence based? – Has it been critically appraised?

TRIP database

• One simple search box• Results colour coded by format of

information found giving an at a glance indication of quality of information

• Results vary widely - including primary research, reviews, textbooks and news

www.tripdatabase.com

Google scholar

• Will generate more academic results than Google

• Can be limited by date• No indication of quality of information

http://scholar.google.co.uk

Medline Plus

• US National Institutes of Health's web site for patients and their families and friends

• Designed to provide up-to-date healthcare information in understandable language

• Also provides links to the latest medical research

www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

Evidence Search

• Searches across all electronic resources provided by NHS

• Results can be filtered– Type of information– Areas of interest– Sources

www.evidence.nhs.uk

Databases

• Vast collections of references of published research

• Filters can be applied to narrow results down

• Searches can be combined and saved for future use

• References can be imported to EndNote

The Cochrane Library

• High quality systematic reviews• Full text of Cochrane review• Abstracts of other systematic reviews

and clinical trials

www.thecochranelibrary.com

Medline (Pubmed)

• Pubmed is a search interface for Medline• Database of references and abstracts of

journal articles • Covers the broad field of biomedicine• Special QM PubMed address for easier

full-text accesswww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?otool=igbqmullib

Web of science

• Part of ISI Web of Knowledge• Contains:

– Science Citation Index– Social Sciences Citation Index– Arts and Humanities Citation Index

• Need to log in off campushttp://wok.mimas.ac.uk/

Clinical Summaries

• NOT source of primary research• Evidence has been read and

summarised• Information presented in a short

paragraph, or as little as a bullet point• Up-to-date and accurate sources of

clinical knowledge

Clinical Knowledge Summaries

• Provides short bullet point lists of information

• Accompanied with links to primary research

• Covers common conditions managed in primary care

http://cks.nice.org.uk/e

Clinical Evidence

• Current evidence-based reviews of treatments (currently 260)

• Clinical information displayed in a question and answer format

• Links to current evidence and guidelines• Additional links provided to patient

information and BNF www.clinicalevidence.com

Evidence-Based Medicine

• Experts critically appraise clinically relevant articles

• Produce summaries of content• Comment on clinical applicability• Publishes articles relevant to study and

practice of EBMebm.bmj.com

Summary

• Use specialist search engines to search across a wide range of good quality web resources

• Use databases to find academic research articles, both primary research as well as review articles

• Use clinical summaries for a quick overview of the best available evidence