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Medicine Subject Guide: EBM

Evidence-Based Practice

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Resources

Evidence-Based Medicine is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values. (Sackett DL, Straus SE, Richardson WS, et al. Evidence-based medicine: how to practice and teach EBM. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2000.)

 

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Filtered Resources

 

Systematic Reviews / Meta-Analyses

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Consists of detailed, structured topic reviews of hundreds of articles. Teams of experts complete comprehensive literature reviews, evaluate the literature, and present summaries of the findings of the best studies. Published by the International Cochrane Collaboration.

The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effect (DARE)

Full-text database containing structured abstracts of systematic reviews from a variety of medical journals. DARE is produced by the National Health Services' Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (NHS CRD) at the University of York. DARE records cover topics such as diagnosis, prevention, rehabilitation, screening, and treatment.

 

Systematic Reviews are also searchable in MEDLINE:

  • Ovid MEDLINE: Enter your search query. Click on the “Limits” icon; select “Systematic Reviews” under “Subject Subsets.”
  • PubMed: Click on “Clinical Queries” on the left side of the screen; select “Find Systematic Reviews” and enter your search query.

Critically-Appraised Topics

 

National Guideline Clearinghouse

A comprehensive database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents produced by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans. Updated weekly.

Note: Guideline evidence varies from expert opinion to high levels of evidence.

Critically-Appraised Individual Articles

 

The ACP Journal Club

The editors of this journal screen the top 100+ clinical journals and identify studies that are methodologically sound and clinically relevant. An enhanced abstract, with conclusions clearly stated, and a commentary are provided for each selected article. Published by the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine.

Bandolier

Bandolier is an independent journal about evidence-based healthcare published in the UK. It includes "information about evidence of effectiveness (or lack of it), and put[s] the results forward as simple bullet points of those things that worked and those that did not: a bandolier with bullets. Information comes from systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomised trials, and from high quality observational studies."

 

EvidenceUpdates from BMJ

Quality articles from over 110 clinical journals are selected by research staff, and then rated for clinical relevance and interest by an international group of physicians. Includes a searchable database of the best evidence from the medical literature and an email alerting system. From BMJ Publishing Group and McMaster University's Health Information Research Unit.

 


Unfiltered Resources

 

PubMed

 

To limit your PubMed search to the best evidence-producing studies: Click on "clinical queries" (on the left side of the screen). This specialized search is intended for clinicians and has built-in search "filters." Four study categories--therapy, diagnosis, etiology, prognosis--are provided, and you may indicate whether you wish your search to be more sensitive (i.e., include most relevant articles but probably including some less relevant ones) or more specific (i.e., including mostly relevant articles but probably omit a few).

Ovid Medline

To limit your Ovid MEDLINE search to the best evidence-producing studies: Clinical Queries (See PubMed) is searchable in Ovid; click on the "Limits" icon.

PsycINFO

International coverage of the professional and academic literature in psychology, medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas.

To limit your PsycINFO search to the best evidence-producing studies: Click on the "Limits" icon to use "Clinical Queries" or limit to "methodology" types.

CINAHL

Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature

To limit your CINAHL search to the best evidence-producing studies: Click on the "Limits" icon to use "Clinical Queries" or limit to "Research" or other "publication" types (i.e., systematic review).


Background Information/Expert Opinion

Note: Evidence in these resources may vary from expert opinion to high levels of evidence.

UpToDate

A clinical information resource, which offers up-to-date, fully referenced expert answers to patient-care, diagnosis, and treatment questions. Topic reviews are written by recognized authorities who review the topic, synthesize the evidence, summarize key findings, and provide specific recommendations.

Medscape Reference

Physician authors and editors contribute to the eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base, which contains articles on 7,000 diseases and disorders. The evidence-based content provides the latest practice guidelines in 62 medical specialties. Medscape's professional content undergoes multiple levels of physician peer review.

Harrison

Searchable and continually updated version of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine.

 


Evidence-Based Medicine Information Sites

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (Oxford University)

The Centre promotes evidence-based health care and provide support and resources to anyone who wants to make use of them. Includes the EBM Toolbox, an assortment of materials which are very useful for practitioners of EBM, and EBM Teaching Materials, including PowerPoint presentations.

 

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (Toronto)

Includes many resources for practicing and teaching EBM

 

Evidence-Based Medicine

A selective list of additional EBM websites developed and maintained by Duke University Medical Center Library.

 

Users' Guides to Evidence-Based Practice

From the University of Alberta's Centre for Health Evidence. Includes the complete set of EBM Users' Guides originally published as a series in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

 


Evidence-Based Medicine Tutorials

Introduction to Evidence-Based Medicine

From Duke University Medical Center Library and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library.

 

SUNY Health Sciences Evidence-Based Medicine Course

 

 


Evidence-Based Medicine Resources for PDA

 

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Produced by Jan Glover, David Izzo, Karen Odato and Lei Wang.

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