CiteULike: Gaetan's ebm

MedEvi: Retrieving textual evidence of relations between biomedical concepts from Medline.

Jung-Jae Kim — 2008-04-11T13:37:51-00:00

Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) (9 April 2008)

SUMMARY: Search engines running on MEDLINE abstracts have been widely used by biologists to find publications that are related to their research. The existing search engines such as PubMed, however, have limitations when applied for the task of seeking textual evidence of relations between given concepts. The limitations are mainly due to the problem that the search engines do not effectively deal with multi-term queries which may imply semantic relations between the terms. To address this problem, we present MedEvi, a novel search engine that imposes positional restriction on occurrences matching multi-term queries, based on the observation that terms with semantic relations which are explicitly stated in text are not found too far from each other. MedEvi further identifies additional keywords of biological and statistical significance from local context of matching occurrences in order to help users reformulate their queries for better results. AVAILABILITY: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/tc-test/textmining/medevi/ CONTACT: kim@ebi.ac.uk, pezik@ebi.ac.uk.

Evidence-based Medicine Search: a customizable federated search engine.

PJ Bracke — 2008-04-03T07:43:34-00:00

Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, Vol. 96, No. 2. (April 2008), pp. 108-113.

PURPOSE: This paper reports on the development of a tool by the Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) for searching clinical evidence that can be customized for different user groups. BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The AHSL provides services to the University of Arizona's (UA's) health sciences programs and to the University Medical Center. Librarians at AHSL collaborated with UA College of Medicine faculty to create an innovative search engine, Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) Search, that provides users with a simple search interface to EBM resources and presents results organized according to an evidence pyramid. EBM Search was developed with a web-based configuration component that allows the tool to be customized for different specialties. OUTCOMES/CONCLUSION: Informal and anecdotal feedback from physicians indicates that EBM Search is a useful tool with potential in teaching evidence-based decision making. While formal evaluation is still being planned, a tool such as EBM Search, which can be configured for specific user populations, may help lower barriers to information resources in an academic health sciences center.

PRESS: Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies

M Sampson — 2008-01-15T02:33:37-00:00

(2008)

The quality of health technology assessment (HTA) reports depends on many factors. One of these factors is the evidence base from which the HTA is derived. The evidence base is created by gathering information from many sources and performing literature searches. Performing a high quality search of information resources will ensure the accuracy and completeness of the evidence base used in HTA reports. Currently, no review exists to tell us what elements of the search process have the most impact on the overall quality of the resulting evidence base. Objectives The objectives of the assessment are: to identify the elements associated with the accuracy and completeness of the evidence base found using electronic search strategies in different topic areas and apply this knowledge to HTA reports to determine the impact of errors in the elements of the electronic search strategy on the resulting evidence base to propose enhancements in the methods used for creating and evaluating search strategies to directly and positively affect the applicability of HTA reports. With the goal of developing and validating a process of peer review for electronic search strategies, we considered tools that were developed in other areas of information retrieval that might serve as a basis for peer reviewing search strategies. Methods A systematic review, web-based survey, and peer review forums were performed. The systematic review was conducted to identify evidence related to quality issues and errors in complex electronic search strategies. Evidence was considered from any context, not only from research in systematic reviews and HTA searching. The databases searched included Library & Information Science Abstracts (LISA, CSA interface)1969 to May 2005; Cochrane Methodology Register & Cochrane Methodology Reviews (completed reviews only, The Cochrane Library 2005, Issue 2, Wiley interface); MEDLINE (OVID interface)1966 to June week 1, 2005; Psyc INFO (OVID interface) 1806 to June week 2, 2005; Cumulative Index to the Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), (OVID interface) 1982 to June week 22005; Health STAR (OVID interface) 1987 to May 2005; and Health and Psychosocial Instruments(HAPI) (OVID interface) 1985 to March 2005. Efforts were also made to identify grey literature. Because of the anticipated paucity of research evidence in some aspects of the electronic search, a web-based survey of expert searchers in systematic reviews and library and information studies was undertaken. The aim of the survey was to gather experts’ opinions regarding the impact of search elements on the search results and the importance of each element in the peer review of electronic search strategies. The survey was conducted after the systematic review was completed, so that elements that were identified as potentially important in the review could be addressed in the survey. The original 14 elements studied in the review and five additional elements that were identified v PRESS: Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies during the review were included in the survey. After this, two peer review forums were held to discuss the results of the systematic review and survey. Findings A systematic review identified evidence on the importance of 14 of the 19 elements of the electronic search strategy that were initially considered. No evidence was found for two elements and from the three remaining elements, one additional element emerged as a result of the review. Although 26tools were identified that could be used as checklists, none were validated for assessing electronic search strategies. Ten of these tools look at the conduct or reporting of the entire search (not just the electronic component). Opinions were sought through a web-based survey for the elements that were considered in the systematic review. Fifty-eight respondents completed the survey. The elements were ranked into three tiers of importance based on an assessment of the potential impact of the elements on recall and precision. Elements that were rated as unimportant in peer review were dropped from further consideration. Based on the evidence of our findings from the systematic review, survey, and peer review forums, a process for validating the search strategy using a checklist and a peer review process was developed. Conclusions This work fills a gap in the assurance of the methodological quality of systematic reviews by contributing an evidence-based scale for the peer review of the electronic search strategy. The project has received support and participation from the information science community, and this approach to the peer review of search strategies has been supported by the Cochrane Collaboration’s Information Retrieval Methods Group. A validated process - both transparent and robust - for peer-reviewing search strategies will improve the retrieval of the relevant information that forms the evidence base.

Real-time EBM: from bed board to keyboard and back.

R Stark — 2008-01-14T09:10:00-00:00

J Gen Intern Med, Vol. 22, No. 12. (December 2007), pp. 1656-1660.

BACKGROUND: To practice Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), physicians must quickly retrieve evidence to inform medical decisions. Internal Medicine (IM) residents receive little formal education in electronic database searching, and have identified poor searching skills as a barrier to practicing EBM. OBJECTIVE: To design and implement a database searching tutorial for IM residents on inpatient rotations and to evaluate its impact on residents' skill and comfort searching MEDLINE and filtered EBM resources. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. Residents randomized to the searching tutorial met for up to 6 1-hour small group sessions to search for answers to questions about current hospitalized patients. PARTICIPANTS: Second- and 3rd-year IM residents. MEASUREMENTS: Residents in both groups completed an Objective Structured Searching Evaluation (OSSE), searching for primary evidence to answer 5 clinical questions. OSSE outcomes were the number of successful searches, search times, and techniques utilized. Participants also completed self-assessment surveys measuring frequency and comfort using EBM databases. RESULTS: During the OSSE, residents who participated in the intervention utilized more searching techniques overall (p < .01) and used PubMed's Clinical Queries more often (p < .001) than control residents. Searching "success" and time per completed search did not differ between groups. Compared with controls, intervention residents reported greater comfort using MEDLINE (p < .05) and the Cochrane Library (p < .05) on post-intervention surveys. The groups did not differ in comfort using ACP Journal Club, or in self-reported frequency of use of any databases. CONCLUSIONS: An inpatient EBM searching tutorial improved searching techniques of IM residents and resulted in increased comfort with MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library, but did not impact overall searching success.

[Electronic search for the best biomedical evidence: tactics and strategy]

AA Conti — 2007-11-15T08:14:38-00:00

Recenti Prog Med, Vol. 98, No. 10. (October 2007), pp. 495-500.

The search for biomedical information arises largely from the need to find, on the part of health operators, reliable and updated answers to the questions elicited by their patients. Even if today technology makes available powerful electronic tools for health education and updating, the enormous quantity of health information remains a major issue for professionals looking for biomedical evidence. Health operators, wishing to quickly assess and effectively extract the pertinent and relevant evidence they are looking for, have, contemporaneously, limited time to dedicate to evidence searching and enormous amounts of non-homogeneous information to scan. Research tactics and strategies emerge from the correct formulation of health queries. Posing the appropriate questions is therefore the first step of the process of retrieving clear and exhaustive answers, derived from guaranteed sources of biomedical information. The process continues with the complete identification and application of the correct method of research and economic retrieval of evidence, as also with its critical evaluation, synthesis and implementation. Knowing where and how to look for biomedical evidence in electronic databases is consequently a fundamental step in tracking the solution of a clinical problem in the perspective of Evidence Based Medicine and of any other evidence based health discipline, including what we have called "Evidence Based History of Medicine".

Searching for the evidence: a practical guide to some online databases in chiropractic and osteopathy.

A Parkhill — 2007-11-09T08:14:05-00:00

Australas Chiropr Osteopathy, Vol. 12, No. 2. (November 2004), pp. 49-56.

Background: Chiropractic and Osteopathy are categorised within the family of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by most indexers and database managers. CAM therapies can be difficult to search because relevant resources are spread over a number of databases.Objective: This paper aims to introduce basic searching skills for six databases which offer CAM literature.Methods: Six readily available databases which can be used by a busy clinician to remain informed about best practice were chosen. The databases were searched and compared using two clinical scenarios as sample searches.Discussion: Evidence-based practice demands that practitioners maintain their information gathering skills, but no one source provides all the answers. We are lured by the thought that everything is available on the web easily and speedily, but may sacrifice quality for ease and speed of retrieval.

Growth and decentralization of the medical literature: implications for evidence-based medicine.

BG Druss — 2005-11-26T16:17:34-00:00

J Med Libr Assoc, Vol. 93, No. 4. (October 2005), pp. 499-501.

À la recherche des données validées (4)- Les filtres « validants » de Medline

P Eveillard — 2007-10-16T09:00:27-00:00

La revue du praticien Médecine générale (16 October 2007)

À la recherche des données validées (3) - Les «preuves» de l'Evidence-Based Medicine

P Eveillard — 2007-10-04T15:31:18-00:00

La revue du praticien Médecine générale (2 October 2007)

PICO Linguist and BabelMeSH: Development and Partial Evaluation of Evidence-based Multilanguage Search Tools for MEDLINE/PubMed.

P Fontelo — 2007-10-04T15:14:52-00:00

Stud Health Technol Inform, Vol. 129 (2007), pp. 817-821.

PICO Linguist and BabelMeSH are multilanguage search tools intended for users whose native language is not English. A database of medical terms was created using concept identification equivalents of English terms to other languages. The primary sources of vocabularies were UMLS, MeSH, WHO EMRO and UMLF. The search interface changes according to the language selected which allows search terms to be entered in the native language. The user can limit the search output according to the language of publication but citations retrieved are in English only. Links may be provided to journals if published online. Evaluation of the French and Spanish versions using journal key words and a list of common diseases showed 77.5% and 86.5% accuracy respectively. User feedback was positive. PICO Linguist and BabelMeSH could be useful and convenient tools in finding current evidence sources in the medical literature especially for non-English medical terms that may be difficult to express in English.

À la recherche des données validées (2) - Les recommandations en « pole position »

P Eveillard — 2007-09-24T08:54:09-00:00

La revue du praticien Médecine générale (20 September 2007)

The Map of Medicine--an innovative knowledge management tool.

M Stein — 2007-08-23T15:57:01-00:00

AMIA Annu Symp Proc (2006)

À la recherche des données validées (1) - Qui valide les données ?

P Eveillard — 2007-09-12T12:27:39-00:00

La revue du praticien Médecine générale (11 September 2007)

Using the Turning Research Into Practice (TRIP) database: how do clinicians really search?

E Meats — 2007-06-11T12:40:16-00:00

J Med Libr Assoc, Vol. 95, No. 2. (April 2007), pp. 156-163.

OBJECTIVES: Clinicians and patients are increasingly accessing information through Internet searches. This study aimed to examine clinicians' current search behavior when using the Turning Research Into Practice (TRIP) database to examine search engine use and the ways it might be improved. METHODS: A Web log analysis was undertaken of the TRIP database-a meta-search engine covering 150 health resources including MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, and a variety of guidelines. The connectors for terms used in searches were studied, and observations were made of 9 users' search behavior when working with the TRIP database. RESULTS: Of 620,735 searches, most used a single term, and 12% (n = 75,947) used a Boolean operator: 11% (n = 69,006) used "AND" and 0.8% (n = 4,941) used "OR." Of the elements of a well-structured clinical question (population, intervention, comparator, and outcome), the population was most commonly used, while fewer searches included the intervention. Comparator and outcome were rarely used. Participants in the observational study were interested in learning how to formulate better searches. CONCLUSIONS: Web log analysis showed most searches used a single term and no Boolean operators. Observational study revealed users were interested in conducting efficient searches but did not always know how. Therefore, either better training or better search interfaces are required to assist users and enable more effective searching.