Searching Ovid for an answer
Question from scenario
65-year-old male had been waking frequently at night due to urgency to void. His urologist has diagnosed Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). In reviewing the literature alpha-antagonists also called alpha-blockers are prescribed. The patient is getting more irritable at home and is suffering from concentration problems at his high–tech job. The physician is concerned with patient compliance with his medication.
•P• I•C•O
====
65 year old male withBenign Prostatic Hyperplasia
finasteride
terasozin
most efficacious relief of BPH symptoms
PICO
• Keywords describe the main idea of your topic/concept
• Keywords are located in the Title, Author, Subject/Descriptor, Abstract, and Journal fields
• Use keyword searching when articles have not been indexed with subject headings
• Negative - Have to use synonyms (all the ways an author may have expressed and/or spelled the topic)
Ex: back pain OR back pains OR backache ORbackaches OR back ache OR back aches, OR pain, back etc.
• Negative - More articles, tends to be less relevant
Keyword Searching
How to get to Ovid
Mouse over Databases
Databases
Click on Ovid
Libraries’ home pagewww.ttuhsc.edu/libraries
Libraries’ home pagewww.ttuhsc.edu/libraries
Click Continue
Click
Main Search Page
“benign prostatic hyperplasia”
Click Search
Results in thefirst search set
finasteride
Click Search
Results in thesecond search set
Click Searchfinasteride
Select sets to Combine
Click And
Boolean Logic - AND
finasteridebenign
prostatichyperplasia
AND
Results of theAND combination
terazosin
Click Search
Results of thethird search set
Select sets to Combine
Click And
Results of theAND combination
Select sets to Combine
Click And
Results of theAND combination
Results have narrowed to a
manageable number of articles
Click Display to view articles
Search Results
Articles with answer to
PICO question
EBM Journal Article Literature Databases
Note that the results are sorted by database – in this case the Cochrane Database of Systematic
Reviews
Scrolling through the results
there areresults from
ACP Journal Club
results from Database of
Reviews of Effects(DARE)
and results from Cochrane Central
Register of Controlled Trials
Cochrane Databaseof Systematic
Reviews
What is a Systematic Review?
From: Cochrane Collaboration at http://www.cochrane.org/resources/glossary.htm
Systematic reviewA review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review.
Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyze and summarize the results of the included studies.
Meta-analysisThe use of statistical techniques in a systematic review to integrate the results of included studies. Sometimes misused as a synonym for systematic reviews, where the review includes a meta-analysis.
Systematic Reviews assess randomized trials and provide a comprehensive summary of the available evidence.
Over 800 international journals are searched to locate articles.a
Systematic Reviews contain all known reference to trials on a particular intervention.
Evidence is assessed with explicit quality criteria to minimize bias ensure reliability.
Trials that meet assessment criteria can be combined to produce a more statistically reliable result.
Data from studies are often combined statistically to increase the power of the findings
of numerous studies, which on their own may be too small to produce reliable results.
Authors, who participate with the Cochrane Collaboration, appraise and
synthesize evidence from as many relevant scientific studies as possible.
Click EBM Topic Review
The EBM Topic Reviewis a methodological
summary of thecomplete systematic
review article
Topic reviews are prepared by an author team including subject experts, peer reviewers, librarians, methodologists,
and copy and content editors.
Article as PDF
96 pages
complete article
Search strategy done for this review.
Subject heading used in the search.
ACP Journal Club
Study categories include:a
a
Prevention or treatment Diagnosis Prognosis Etiology Economics Clinical prediction guides Differential diagnosis
ACP Journal Club is a joint online journal:ACP Journal Club by the American College of PhysiciansEvidence-Based Medicine by the British Medical Journal Group
Over 100 clinical journals are screened for original studies that are methodologically sound & clinically relevant.
Information summarized in structured abstracts
include:aA
Study Selection
Data Extraction
Results
Conclusions
Information summarized in structured abstracts
include:
Study Selection
Data Extraction
Results
Conclusions
ACP Journal Club includes brief commentaries on:a
aa
Context
Clinical applications of
findings
DARE
DARE includes
Over 3000 abstracts
of systematic reviews that
have been quality assessed
Reviews answer questions
about specific interventions
Authors’ conclusions
Critical commentary
Implications
Cochrane Central
Register ofControlled Trials
Click Complete Reference
CCRT does not contain full text.Access full text through Gold Rush.
The Cochrane Central Register of
Controlled Trials
3/5th’s records are from PubMed
Relevant records from Embase
Other published and unpublished sources
Reports from conference proceedings
The Cochrane Central Register of
Controlled Trials
also searchable by PubMed’s
Medical Subject Headings
Subject Heading searches
yield easier and more
accurate search results
Keywords VS Subject Headings
Subject headings:• Also called controlled vocabulary words (thesaurus) – links your
synonyms and different spellings to one word or phrase
• Standardized set of terms usually identified and defined by subject indexers
• Articles have been indexed and given subject headings
• Finds less articles but are more relevant
• Negative – May miss articles not indexed
Advanced Searching Techniques
Advanced Searching Techniques
By entering an asterisk at the end of part of a word, the computer searches for any suffix of that word:
Example: gene* can yield
genes
generation
genetic
genetics
This is called truncation.
Other search techniques:
Can use Boolean OR to combine synonyms
Example: alpha-antagonists or alpha-blockers
or
alpha-antagonists
alpha-blockers
Possible search strategies for the
other PICO questions
Assignment
Reading AssignmentBuilding Focused, Well-Articulated Clinical Questions What makes a clinical question well built? First, the question should be directly relevant to the problems at hand. Next, the question should be phrased to facilitate searching for a precise answer. To achieve these aims, the question must be focusedand well articulated for all 4 parts of its 'anatomy' (known as PICO): 1) the Patient, population or problem being addressed
What are the characteristics of the patient or population?
What is the condition or disease? 2) the Intervention being considered which could include:exposure, diagnostic test, prognostic factor, therapy, patient perception What do you want to do with this patient? Treat, diagnose, observe?3) the Comparison intervention or exposure, when relevant
relevant most often when looking at therapy questions
What is the alternative to the intervention? Placebo, different drug, surgery?
4) the clinical Outcomes of interestWhat are relevant clinical outcomes of interest to
youand your patient? Morbidity, death,
complications?
Asking focused, four-component questions takes practice. Doing it well requires that you have insight into what you do not know, coupled with curiosity and a willingness to learn. Also, knowing how questions arise, where they come from, and how to recognize and articulate them can help you refine your skills.How do clinical questions arise? During a patient encounter, the clinician may be uncomfortable making a decision until more is known. It is recommended that you quietyour emotions while turning your implicit knowledge gaps into explicit questions.Most clinical questions arise from the following six aspects of clinical work: 1) Clinical evidence: how to gather clinical findings properly & interpret them soundly.2) Diagnosis: how to select and interpret diagnostic tests.3) Prognosis: how to anticipate the patient's likely course.4) Therapy: how to select treatments that do more good than harm.5) Prevention: how to screen and reduce the risk for disease.6) Education: how to teach yourself, the patient, and the family what is needed.
How can you recognize and formulate clinical questions as they occur? First, pay careful attention to the questions that spontaneously occur to you. Listen for the 'question behind the question.' Next, try saying your questions out loud or writing them down with all four components included. Then build your question in two steps, starting with the 'location,' such as 'my question is about therapy,' Ask yourself what type of clinical scenario would you like to consider: Therapy?
Prognosis? Diagnosis? Harm?Then, articulate all four PICO components explicitly. See the example below.What if too many questions arise? Select from the many questions the few that are most important to answer right away. Ask yourself, "What is the most important issue for this patient now? What issue should I address first? Which question, when answered, will help me most?
PICO Example:
Patient or Problem: 65-year-old man with a stroke & moderate carotid stenosis
Intervention: ASA (acetylsalicylic acid)Comparison Intervention: PlaceboOutcome: Stroke
becomes a focused, well-built question.
Focused, Well-Built Question:In a 65-year-old man with a stroke and moderate
carotid stenosis, can ASA decrease the risk of another stroke compared with no treatment? Additional PracticeIf you would like additional practice formulating articulate questions using a web tutorial go to:http://www.cebm.utoronto.ca/practise/formulate/Answering Clinical QuestionsAfter the patient care problem(s) has been articulated into a focused, well-built question, the next step is to search the literature. A variety of EBM resources will be explored in the library teaching sessions.
Taken from: The well-built clinical question: a key to evidence-based decisions by W. Scott Richardson, MD, et al. in ACP Journal Club. 1995; 123 (Nov-Dec): A-12. Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University Health Network, University of Toronto Libraries, (2004). Practising EBM. Retrieved May 8, 2007, from Practising EBM: FormulatingAnswerable Clinical Questions Web site: http://www.cebm.utoronto.ca/practise/formulate/ University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries, (1994-2007). Construct Well-Built Clinical Questions Using PICO. Retrieved May 9, 2007, from HealthLinks, Toolkits, Care Provider, Evidence Based Practice Web site: http://healthlinks.washington.edu/ebp/pico.html
rev.2 05/09/07
Create a PICO using the PICO Worksheet
Assessment
1) Using the PICO formulation helps to organize issues of research in clinical cases.
TrueFalse
2) The “I” in the PICO formula stands for IDEA. True False
Assessment
End of Searching OVID for an
Answer Module