Searching NHS Evidence www.evidence.nhs.uk Acknowledgement: This guide is adapted and updated by Ziba Nadimi and Daphne Grey members of Clinical Librarian and Information Skills Trainers forum (CLIST). It was originally produced by Claire Jones, Information Skills Trainer Library and Education Centre, Princess Royal University Hospital - 1 -
Background The NHS Evidence was launched in April 2009 as part of the High Quality Care for All report by Lord Darzi, who stated that: All NHS Staff will have access to a new NHS Evidence service where they will be able to get, through a single web-based portal, authoritative clinical and non-clinical evidence and best practices. NHS Evidence allows everyone working in health and social care to have easy access to a comprehensive range of evidence-based health information to help them deliver quality patient care. It provides access to a range of information types, including primary research literature, practical implementation tools, guidelines and policy documents. NHS Evidence: has a fast, free and easy to use search to help users search for the information they want ranks search results from credible medical sources according to relevance and quality allows users through My Evidence - to personalise a search and register to receive the latest health information awards an Accreditation Mark to organisations who meet high quality standards in developing health information Accessing NHS Evidence Go to www.evidence.nhs.uk Use the links on the right hand side of the screen for NHS Evidence resources and information on accreditation. - 2 -
Searching NHS Evidence provides a simple search of many sources of clinical and social care information. More detail on the sources can be found on the Sources of Information page under About Us. The search can be freely accessed without the need for logging in, and the full text of the search results can also be freely obtained in most cases. The search will be in many ways familiar to users of well-known internet search engines. You enter terms in the search box and results are returned which contain all the search terms. Searching phrases To search for an exact phrase put quotation marks around the phrase. For example, searching for heart attack will return only those documents where that exact phrase appears. Boolean operators (AND, OR and NOT) By default the terms are combined with AND. For example a search for asthma steroids will actually be performing the following search asthma AND steroids and so will find documents containing both words wherever they occur. You can use the OR operator to find alternative terms. For example, search for ("allergic rhinitis" OR "hayfever" OR "hay fever") You can also exclude words by using the NOT operator, for example: NSAIDS NOT aspirin. This will search for the word preceding the operator but not the one following it. Wildcard You can use a wildcard after a part of a word to search for all words with the same beginning: for example surg* will find surgeon, surgery and surgical. Note that plural forms are automatically included in a search for a singular term see Word Variations on the next page so you do not have to use a wildcard to search for a plural form as well. Spelling As well as the normal English language dictionary search terms will also be checked against the NHS Evidence medical dictionary for accuracy. Should a term be slightly misspelled then you will be offered a suggestion for correct spelling: you can click on this link to run the search again with the correct spelling: - 3 -
Word variations When appropriate the search engine will automatically search for words (nouns and adjectives only) that are related to some or all of your search terms, even if they are spelled differently. For example, if you search for "strategies" the search engine will also retrieve "strategy", and foot will retrieve feet. Any variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result. Capitalisation The searches are NOT case sensitive. Therefore regardless of whether you use upper case, lower case or a combination of both our search engine will automatically search for all versions. This also applies to the Boolean operators. Searching for specific sources If you use the search box to search for any of the sources that can be accessed on NHS Evidence, you will have the option to limit your search to only that resource. In this example the person searching is asked Did you want to see results for aromatherapy only from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Cochrane) Search Results When you run a search the Search Results page is displayed. The title of each result is a link to the full text article on the source site. Many articles also have a link called Read Summary which allows you to read an abstract before going to the full text. Note that the default setting sorts results by relevance, but you can change that to sort results by date as shown below. - 4 -
An accreditation mark beside any of your results means that the type of information and its source have been approved by the NHS Evidence Advisory Committee. You may also see the accreditation mark in the Sources navigator, where it will indicate an accredited source. At the bottom of the search results page you can also change the number of results displayed from the default of 10 to 20, 30, 40 or 50. To save a search, run your mouse over the + sign next to the number of search results. You can: Save the current search - You must be registered with My Evidence and signed in. Save all on this page - You must be signed in to do this Save individual references by clicking the + sign next to each result. Results can be saved into categories. You can save into the default category or create a new one - 5 -
To share a search, click on the buttons next to the share label below the results. This allows you to post the results to email or social media sites such as Bebo - no My Evidence login required. Filters You can refine your search from the Search Results page. Use the results filters on the left hand side of the screen to examine the numbers of results returned for different Areas of Interest, Types of Information, Clinical Queries, Sources, Medicines and Devices or Published Date. Hover your mouse over any of these categories to view their content and click on any filter of your interest to apply it to your main search result narrowing it down. These are called dynamic filters. You can also add other selections to limit your results still further. Once selected, your chosen filter is indicated by an 'x' next to it. You can click on these in any order to remove them from your search. The screens below show Guidelines filter (as type of information) applied to the search result. My Evidence My Evidence allows users to register and create their own space on NHS Evidence. Registering for My Evidence will automatically update users on the latest news in their area of specialism or interest. By registering with My Evidence, users can tell NHS Evidence what their particular areas of interests are. Users can then: receive regular updates about new information in their field of interest that has been published and which can be accessed through NHS Evidence - 6 -
receive news feeds automatically alerting them to news about their area of interest save the results of a search they have made save a piece of information they have found as a result of their search My Evidence: how to register Click on sign in on the top right hand corner of the page. Click on the create account link in the sign in box. You can also sign in using your Google account Remember to tick the box to agree to NICE terms and conditions and use of cookies. Complete the required information on the registration form: After your account is activated, click on Sign in on the top right hand corner of the home page, enter your email address and password and click on submit. You will see a page as shown below: Click on My Evidence to access and use a number of features which can help you to manage your information: Saved Searches and Alerts, Saved results and edit profile. Edit profile From the edit profile page you can: Change your email address Change your contact details Add contact details Change your password - 7 -
Saving Alerts Click on Saved Searches and Alerts. You can activate an alert by clicking on the +add link in the alert column. Alerts are generated on a weekly basis. An email is sent to you to indicate the number of new records matching your query along with a direct link to the NHS Evidence results page. Specialist resources There are links to specialist resources on the home page. A-Z of Topics Journals and Databases links to resources such as healthcare databases (Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, HMIC), full text journals and ebooks. Nice Pathways Accreditation Public Health QIPP Quality, Innovation, Productivity & Preventing. See About QIPP for more details. - 8 -
A Z of Topics The A Z of topics gives a browseable A - Z list of clinical and public health topics. You can also click on the medicines link at the left hand side of the page to see an A - Z list of medicines.. Each topic page displays search results from relevant sources and also up to seven sliding panels (e.g. Introduction, guidance, information for the public) at the top of the page which display information relevant to the topic- see Irritable Bowel Syndrome topic below. The individual references are listed below this in the same format as when conducting a search. - 9 -
The medicines A-Z lists generic names of drugs. For example look for paracetamol not Panadol. Each medicines topic page features a prescribing panel showing information from BNF and BNF for Children. It is also possible to filter the drugs information using the Dynamic Filter which gives information from various sections of the BNF. Please note that Athens login details are needed to access full BNF information. Nice Pathways NICE Pathways bring together all related NICE guidance and associated products in a set of interactive topic-based diagrams. Each pathway uses evidence from all relevant NICE guidance, including clinical guidelines, public health guidance, technology appraisals, interventional procedures, medical technology and diagnostics guidance, and quality standards, and accompanying tools produced by NICE to support implementation. The pathways are in two categories i.e. Healthcare and Public health. You can browse A-Z pathways for topic-based diagrams and further information on the topic. NICE Pathways contains no previously unpublished NICE guidance, and only make reference to NICE documents. The pathways do not include information or guidance from other sources. The screen shots below show the A-Z page where the Preventing type 2 diabetes link is followed for further information. - 10 -
Sections of the pathways followed are: Managing type 2 diabetes pathway Preventing type2 diabetes overview Managing type 2 diabetes Identifying and managing long term complications Managing painful diabetic neuropathy - 11 -
NHS Evidence identifies new evidence and disseminates it/them via its monthly Eyes on Evidence bulletin. The bulletin provides a link to new, significant evidence for that month. - 12 -