advanced searching in pub med mar 2010
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given as part of the Graduate Student Workshop series at the University of Western Ontario on March 15th, 2010TRANSCRIPT
Agenda – 5 Scenarios, 5 Tools
• The Comprehensive Search– Ovid MEDLINE
• The Clinical Question– Clinical Queries in PubMed
• The Regular Update– E-mail updates in PubMed
• The Precise Search– Single Citation Matcher in PubMed
• The Rush Job– Pubget
Tip
• Start your searches using the library’s medicine program pages
Exercise: Locate the program page for General Medicine
Search Scenario #1: The Comprehensive Search*
• You have to find EVERY article on a particular topic
• You are assisting a research team or are writing a thesis
Comprehensive Search Strategies
• Search multiple databases• Use Ovid MEDLINE (instead of PubMed) for
your search• Set up a RefWorks* (or similar product)
account to manage your citations• Design a explicit, systematic search strategy
that can be reproduced• Use both keywords and subject headings
Scenario
You are hired by a faculty researcher who is conducting research on hearing loss in AIDS patients. They ask you to find every article published on the subject.
Exercise
Spend about two minutes to conduct a quick search in PubMed on the topic:
AIDS and hearing loss
What is the quality of your results?
Exercise
Find the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for:1. AIDS2. Hearing loss3. Deaf
Which term should you explode?
Exercise
Run the search in Ovid MEDLINE
Search Scenario #2: The Clinical Question
You need to answer a question at the point of care to: – Support a clinical decision– Answer a patient’s question
Clinical Question Types
1. Aetiology: What is the cause of the disease and its mode of operation?
2. Diagnosis: How accurate is this diagnostic test?3. Prognosis: What is the probable course of the disease?4. Therapy: Is one intervention more effective than another?5. Prevention: How to reduce the risk of this disease?6. Cost-effectiveness: Is one intervention more cost-effective than
another?7. Quality of life: What will be the patient’s quality of life?
Clinical Question Strategy
• Use Clinical Queries in PubMed to find the best studies to answer your question
Enter your keywords and select the type of question that you want to answer
Scenario
• A patient with rotator cuff tendinitis asks if you know of any new therapies that would be safe to try.
Exercise• Using Clinical Queries, search PubMed to find
some new studies on treatments for rotator cuff tendinitis
Search Scenario #3: The Regular Update
• You want to stay up to date on the latest publications, but don’t have time to run regular searches
Regular Update Strategy
• Start an account with PubMed (MyNCBI)– Set up your search to run automatically and have
the results sent to your email
Scenario
• You’ve been seeing a lot of patients recently with rotator cuff tendinitis and would like to stay up to date on the most recent publications about treatments
Exercise
• Register for an account with My NCBI
• Return to your PubMed search on rotator cuff tendinitis
• Select “Save Search”• Name your search and select “Save”• Set up your e-mail update preferences
Search Scenario #4: The Precise Search
• You just want one article• You’re searching for items from a reference
list or for a particular article that someone mentioned to you
Precise Search Strategy: Single Citation Matcher
Enter as much information as you can and PubMed will find the closest matching article(s)
Scenario• Your preceptor asks you to read an article in the journal Lung about
a respiratory syndrome affecting survivors of the World Trade Center disaster. They can’t recall anything more about the article.
Exercise• Use Single Citation Matcher to find the article
Search Scenario # 5: The Rush Job
• You need the full-text of an article RIGHT NOW!
Rush Job Strategy: Pubget
• Pubget will display full-text PDFs for Western’s subscriptions within your results sethttp://pubget.com/search
Exercise
• Search Pubget to find an article about discharge instructions after cataract surgery
Recap
• The Comprehensive Search– Ovid MEDLINE
• The Clinical Question– Clinical Queries
• The Regular Update– E-mail updates
• The Precise Search– Single Citation Matcher
• The Rush Job– Pubget
