Evidence-Based Practice Module
From:- Wai-Ching Leung and colleagues wp102@yahoo.com
Effective search

N.B. Many databases require an ATHENS username and password.
Please obtain your username and password.

We will discuss the best strategy to search for best evidence we need in the sessions. However, it is important that you familiarise yourself with accessing the following sources of evidence.

Table of Contents

• Cochrane library
• Guidelines etc
• General databases - Medline, Embase, Web of Sciences
• Specialist databases
• Databases with evidence filters
• Quick search
• Full text journals
• Medical and science information on web
• Academic and professional discussion lists
• Miscellaneous

Cochrane library

• If you are working from UEA clusters, click here (N.B. NO password needed)
• If you are not working via UEA clusters, go through
  National electronic library. (N.B. ATHENS password required)

Guidelines and other reviewed evidence

National guideline clearing house

This is an American dababase for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.

US Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Clinical Guidelines

These clinical guidelines are based on thorough reviews of research evidence.

CMA (Canadian Medical Association) CPG Infobase

This is a large database of Canadian guidelines.

New Zealand Guidelines Group

A list of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines is available.

National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines

The role of NICE is to provide NHS with authoritative, robust and reliable guidance on current “best practice”. The guidance will cover both health technologies (e.g. medicines, medical devices) and the clinical management of specific conditions.

Up till now, there have only been a few published guidelines published.

SIGN

Clinical guidelines developed by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network.

Health Development Agency - putting public health into practice

This database contains summaries of reviews and full reports commissioned or carried out by the HDA, as well as links to reviews and reports elsewhere on the World Wide Web. It contains a database of systematic reviews of effectiveness, literature reviews, meta-analyses, expert group reports and other review-level information about what works to improve health and reduce health inequalities.

UK e-Guidelines
Good collection of UK electronic guidelines. You need to register for this resource electronically.

MEDLINE

• Via Ovid (N.B. ATHENS password required)
• Medline Pro (no password required)
• Via National Library of Medicine - include Medline and other information sources (N.B. No password required)

EMBASE

• Via Ovid (N.B. ATHENS password required)

• Science Citation Index Expanded with Cited References and Author Abstracts
• Social Sciences Citation Index Expanded with Cited References and Author Abstracts

Specialist databases

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature) and
Nursing Collections

• via OVID

Physiotherapy database
This is a really excellent database on evidence relating to physiotherapy practice, with good evaluation of the validity of each study.

Databases with evidence filters

PubMed clinical queries with evidence filters
Questions on diagnosis, therapy, prognosis and aetiology can be searched with in-built evidence filters.

Best evidence collections
(via Ovid) - ATHENS password required
Evidence within this collection has been thoroughly evaluated.

Clinical Evidence

This is a six monthly, updated compendium of evidence on the effects of common clinical interventions.

CASPfew Filters

These fileters are tested and recommended by Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medine. However, they must be downloaded.

Quick search through all evidence-based material

TRIP database

This database is good for PRELIMINARY quick search through Cochrane database, peer-reviewed journals and guidelines to gain an idea of the types and volume of evidence based material available for any topic.

Full text journals

via UEA electronic journal library
Currently, UEA library catalogues electronic journals according to publishers. This means you have to know which of the publisher publishes the journal you are looking for.

Via WebPAC (If you have problems accessing it from outside UEA, navigate from here.)
Choose "search catalogue" in the menu on the left, "journal title words" as the type of search. You might find the URL of the journal. However, this catalogue is currently incomplete for health journals.

Via PubMed
This is a good place to start and easier to use than UEA electronic journal library. It gives a list of full-text electronic journals available. Find the journal you want by using "find" menu on your computer, and then click the link from the publisher under which the journal is listed.

Find the journal home page by using one of the internet search engines, such as Google, Metacrawler or altavista. Remember to put quotation marks before and after the journal title, such as "Journal of Public Health Medicine".

Free Medical Journals
This is a useful site to search for all free full text medical journals available on the web.

Medical and Science information on the web

Cliniweb
This allows very quick and easy access to biomedical information on the world wide web, with links to the National Libary of Medicine, appropriate for the needs of healthcare professionals. Information can be located either by browsing according to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), or by searching.

MDChoice

This is a very useful and precise search engine to locate a broad range of clinical information, including reviews, book chapters and images.

MedWeb Plus

Another good site to search and browse for available medical and health information, including images.

OMNI gateway

A gateway to Internet resources in medicine and professions allied to medicine. It covers UK reosurces comprehensively as well as links to Internet resources.

Scirus allows you to search for relevant scientific and medical information on the web, filtering out all irrelevant material.

General internet search engines

Google (advanced version)
Advanced Google Image Search
Altavista
Metacrawler

Academic and Professional Discussion Lists

General academic and professional lists

Lists relevant to health and medicine
This is the "Health and Medicine" section of the National Academic Mailing List Service.

N.B. If you are joining an open (public) list, do not use your usual e-mail account. Register for a free e-mail account (e.g. via Hotmail, Yahoo, or Excite) - this will avoid the risk of being spammed.

Miscellaneous

Medical textbook on-line (The Merck Manual)

Online medical dictionary

British National Formulary(if unavailable, click here.)

List of UK University library catalogues

List of UK University web sites

Any government report

On-line bookshops:-

• Internet bookshop
• Amazon bookshop
• BMJ bookshop
• Barnes and Noble bookshop

• The Guardian
• The Times
• The Telegraph
• The Independent

University Masters and Doctorate thesesClick on "main search page"

This page is created and maintained by Wai-Ching Leung
e-mail:- wp102@yahoo.com
last modified 13 October 2001