National Training Course SEARCHING MEDLINE Joanne McEntee Medicines Information Pharmacist North West Medicines Information Centre
Main issues/problems General Searches produce irrelevant hits or too many hits how do you find relevant hits for your topic? Finding/limiting to full text articles Not using to full potential / want to be more confident / need practice Not as up-to-date as PubMed When to use Medline/Embase?
Searching techniques Main issues/problems Remembering to use map to tree and search number. Deciding on a search term - keyword or free text? Free text searching - which field to use? Different thesaurus for the two databases. How to combine terms? When to explode and when to narrow searches? When and how to use major and subheadings?
Plan Searching basics (pre-course material) What is Medline? (pre-course material) Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) National Library of Medicine s MeSH browser Searching tools NHS Evidence/OVID software basics Worked examples
Searching Medline Use indexing system - MeSH thesaurus Controlled vocabulary >22,000 keywords (descriptors) Each represents a single concept/idea Tree structure (16) - hierarchical Constantly changing 600+ added per year
Medical Subject Headings Articles indexed by 3 tier system MeSH descriptor (MeSH heading) MeSH qualifier (MeSH subheading) Items mentioned (check tags) Articles are indexed, then double checked by another indexer must agree
MeSH Browser http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/mbrowser.html Or Google Mesh browser Now click on Navigate from tree top
MeSH Examples Kidney Failure Depression Chronic Fatigue Syndrome PTSD Fluoxetine
Select Searching Tools Searches just for the term (it can be alone, linked to a subheading or a major term). Explode Searches for the term and all the terms below in the tree structure. Major descriptor (focus) Only includes articles where the keyword (MeSH heading/descriptor) is the main focus of the article.
Quick questions What is the correct MeSH term to use for angina? If you exploded this term, what term(s) would also be included in your search?
Subheadings (qualifiers) Subheadings (qualifiers) Used to refine your search. What aspect of the main heading is the author writing about? Definitions of subheadings, e.g. administration and dosage, adverse effects, analysis, chemistry, diagnostic use, economics, history, etc.
e.g. AE: adverse effects DU: diagnostic use PK: pharmacokinetics TU: therapeutic use
Check Tags All relevant tags are attached to the article These are used as limit functions Human Child Adult Aged Male, Female, etc.
Check tags Limits publication types If you want papers that are meta analyses, use the publication type limit function. If you want papers about meta-analysis as a study design (methods, etc.), use the MeSH heading meta-analysis as a topic from tree E. Look at the MESH browser for definitions.
Supplementary Concept Records Substances not defined in MeSH (i.e. don t have MeSH terms) Over 199,000 SCRs in the database >30,000 substances undergoing clinical development not all will become commercially available medicines Depending on software - search by free text
Quick question What is directly above olanzapine in the MeSH tree? What is its CAS registry number?
Medline & MeSH Recap Successful searching is finding correct keyword MeSH headings Scope Notes Explode Major/Subheadings/Check Tags Supplementary concepts
Accessing Medline? SILVER PLATTER PUBMED MEDLINE Ovid NICE Evidence Search MEDSCAPE
NICE Evidence Search www.evidence.nhs.uk Click Journals and databases Click Healthcare databases advanced search Type in your Athens password Select Medline.
NICE Evidence Search and Ovid software Search one database at a time different thesaurus Medline 1950 to present 2 options to search for terms: Thesaurus mapping Browse headings
NICE Evidence Search and Ovid software Tree structure Major/Explode Subheadings Supplementary Concepts Limits Show titles
Worked example 1 Workshop question 1 Are there any papers specifically about using linezolid to treat MRSA?
Worked example 2 Workshop question 2 Are there any review articles about inhaler use in children with asthma aged under 4?
Worked example 3 Workshop question 5 Is there any evidence that minocycline is more effective than any of the other tetracyclines licensed for treating acne (tetracycline, lymecycline, oxytetracycline, doxycycline)?
ANY QUESTIONS?