Searching for evidence
The hierarchical 'branch-like' structure presents a controlled thesaurus with increasingly more specific topics. What is this branch structure called in MeSH?
What is the "tree" OR tree structure?
One of several standards and / or checklists to help with reporting search strategies for systematic reviews.
What are:
- The Cochrane Handbook
- Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies (PRESS)
- PRISMA 2020 / PRISMA-S
- STARLITE
Using words and phrases (i.e., NOT controlled terms) in searching is called what in information retrieval?
What is 'natural language searching' and/or keyword or 'freetext' searching?
Canadian government website listing drugs approved in Canada including 'drug monographs' (overview of testing on humans) for free
This paper examined 14 review types and is authored by two UK medical librarians.
Grant & Booth (2009)
A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types
The part of a MeSH record with definitions for terms & entry dates, entry terms & synonyms
What is the scope note?
Clinical study with treatment group & comparison when patients are randomized to an intervention or placebo ...
What is a randomized controlled trial?
Symbols * $ : or ? can be used to perform what type of searching in Ovid?
What are truncation searching or 'wildcard' searching...?
Canadian health librarian worked for years at McMaster in the filters area called HIRU. Among the most-cited librarians in the world...
Who is K. Ann McKibbon?
This is the highest level of evidence in the hierarchy of evidence.
A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a meta-analysis
In PubMed, this is where you can search using the Haynes filters.
What are the clinical queries?
These two major biomedical databases are used to locate key "clinical trials" (not Cochrane)
What are MEDLINE & EMBASE?
To locate literature specific to First Nations in Canada, you cannot rely on MeSH alone but must add what to your searching?
What are searching for specific First Nations, Aboriginal, Metis or Inuit names? Reserves? Language groups?
Top impact medical journals are BMJ, Lancet, JAMA and the New Eng J of Medicine and this fifth Canadian journal that started in1911
What is the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)?
This popular point of care database is not available at UBC but it is similar to DynaMed (it is also VERY expensive)
What is UpToDate?
These search operators are used in all searches with two sets. They are named after an English mathematician named Boole.
What are Boolean operators (see George Boole)?
These search techniques are used to increase the sensitivity of papers found in MEDLINE & EMBASE.
What are:
- Grey literature searches
- Reference harvesting; citation indexes
- Contacting experts
- Handsearching
A bibliographic database useful in searching for specific drug trials in Europe.
What is EMBASE?
Two Canadian health librarians working at UBC Library in post-graduate medicine.
Sae Yong Kim and Vanessa Kitchin - and soon Prubjot Kaur Gill
This "metasearch tool" on the web allows searching across several web sources of evidence "in real time"
What is the TRIP Database? https://www.tripdatabase.com/
Constructing an effective search involves breaking a question into concepts & keywords. P-I-C-O helps to structure searches & stands for.... what?
What is Patient (population), Intervention, Comparison and Outcome?
Name two popular point of care (POC) tools (often used as background information)
What are DynaMed, Clinical Evidence, UpToDate, eMedicine....others?
These qualifiers in MEDLINE increase precision of indexing. What are they called?
What are the MeSH subheadings (or qualifiers)?
Several review "types" map the literature and provide more rapid approaches to synthesis ...
What are scoping reviews, rapid reviews, realist reviews?