Tips to search the literatureExample with PubMed

Patrice CHALON, MscKnowledge manager, Centre fédéral d'expertise des soins de santé (KCE)

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Approach

1. Identify your problem

2. Define a structured question

3. Find the best evidence

4. How valid is the study?

5. What are the results?

6. How should I apply the results to patient care?

Source: Guyatt G, Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. Users' guides to the medical literature : a manual for evidence-based clinical practice. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008.

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1. IDENTIFY YOUR PROBLEM

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Example

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2. DEFINE A STRUCTURED QUESTION

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Example

Source : Horsmans Y, Thiry N, le Polain M, Adler M, Colle I, Delwaide J, Michielsen P, Orlent H, Van Damme P, Hulstaert F. Rapport coût-efficacité du traitement antiviral de l’hépatite B chronique en Belgique. Partie 1: Examen de la littérature et résultats d’une étude nationale. Health Technology

Assessment (HTA). Bruxelles: Centre fédéral d’expertise des soins de santé (KCE). 2010. KCE Reports 127B. D/2010/10.2738/23.

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Example (cont.)

(CHB OR (Hepatitis B ADJ2 Chronic*))

AND

(NA OR (Nuclo?ide ADJ2 analogue) OR (Interferon ADJ3 therap*))

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3. FIND THE BEST EVIDENCE

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Databases for economic evaluations

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MEDLINE (PUBMED)http://www.pubmed.gov

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MedLine fact sheet

Producer National Library of Medicine (NLM, USA)

Time coverage

1947-

Source 5400 worldwide journals currently in 30 languages

Topics Basic biomedical research and the clinical sciences, including nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, allied health, and pre-clinical sciences, life sciences including some aspects of biology, environmental science, marine biology, plant and animal science as well as biophysics and chemistry.

Content Journal articles

Indexation Medical Subject headings (MeSH), updated annually manual indexation based on full text reading

Abstracts Author-written English abstractsSource : http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/medline.html

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PubMed additional content

The out-of-scope citations (e.g., articles on plate tectonics or astrophysics) from certain MEDLINE journals, primarily general science and chemistry journals, for which the life sciences articles are indexed for MEDLINE.

Citations that precede the date that a journal was selected for MEDLINE indexing

Some additional life science journals that submit full text to PubMedCentral and receive a qualitative review by NLM.

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Example

Source : Horsmans Y, Thiry N, le Polain M, Adler M, Colle I, Delwaide J, Michielsen P, Orlent H, Van Damme P, Hulstaert F. Rapport coût-efficacité du traitement antiviral de l’hépatite B chronique en Belgique. Partie 1: Examen de la littérature et résultats d’une étude nationale. Health Technology

Assessment (HTA). Bruxelles: Centre fédéral d’expertise des soins de santé (KCE). 2010. KCE Reports 127B. D/2010/10.2738/23.

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Search 1st concept (patient / pathology)

MeSH database, available from : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=MeSH2010-09-10 14Patrice X. Chalon

Check MeSH term

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Major Heading? Explode?

Major Heading Major topics of the article are

usually obtained from the title and/or statement of purpose

Explode Explode option retains all

narrower terms

PubMed explodes by default

Source : http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/mesh/index.html2010-09-10 16Patrice X. Chalon

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PubMed : results

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PubMed : Advanced search

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Search : 2nd concept (therapy)

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Search : 2nd concept (therapy) (cont.)

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PubMed search algorithm

PubMed uses an algorithm to broaden your search, the algorithm associates different terms The algorithm tries to find

adequate MeSH term(s)

The algorithm uses truncation at the end

The search history only retains your query (!!!)

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Search : 2nd concept, term 2

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Combine searches (OR)

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Combine searches (AND)

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Search 3rd concept (design)

Source : Horsmans Y, Thiry N, le Polain M, Adler M, Colle I, Delwaide J, Michielsen P, Orlent H, Van Damme P, Hulstaert F. Rapport coût-efficacité du traitement antiviral de l’hépatite B chronique en Belgique. Partie 1: Examen de la littérature et résultats d’une étude nationale. Health Technology

Assessment (HTA). Bruxelles: Centre fédéral d’expertise des soins de santé (KCE). 2010. KCE Reports 127B. D/2010/10.2738/23.

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Alternatives

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Thank you!

Copyrights: This work is released under Creative Commons License

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