3. Other Medical Databases
Before searching
Medline remember that there are other medical databases, some of which may be more useful
for your task.
CANCERLIT.
Available from the US National
Cancer Institute (NCI), this database of approximately one million records includes
all the cancer-related citations on Medline as well as some additional material, such as
US government reports, meeting abstracts letters and monographs, from 1983 onwards. The
NCI has created some specific topic searches which provide
the most recent information in about fifteen areas. When searching CancerLit you can use
the NonMedline filter to exclude duplicates if you have already run your search in
Medline.
CINAHL. The
Cumulative Index in Nursing and Allied Health uses the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)
indexing system like Medline and covers nursing and other health disciplines. If you want
some evidence based filters to help you with searching CINAHL they are available from Rochester.
COCHRANE (and DARE).
You can only access abstracts and not full text at the Cochrane site, but the Doctors.net offers access to the full
text of the Cochrane Systematic Reviews (you will need your GMC number to join for free).
It consists of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of
Effectiveness (DARE), and a trials register. The NHS Centre for Reviews and
Dissemination has some tutorials
on the use of Cochrane, and you can have a look at the Cochrane User Group discussion
board (and join the Mailbase list if you wish to contribute).
EMBASE. The
Excerpta Medica database focuses on drugs and pharmacology, but also includes other
biomedical specialties. It has a better European coverage than Medline. Available
via the Ovid interface to BMA members,
or at Healthgate.
HealthSTAR.
Available via Healthgate or Internet Grateful Med this database covers
clinical and non-clinical aspects of health service provision and health economics.
TRIP. The
Turning Research Into Practice database (http://www.tripdatabase.com/) allows you to search
other evidence-based medicine sites (currently 28) and gives a summary for each article
found. It holds an index of articles relevant to primary care from resources such as the
Cochrane database, Bandolier, Effectiveness matters, Evidence Centre Reports, Canadian
Clinical Practice Guidelines Infobase, POEMS, SHPIC etc. The list of indexed publications is
itself a useful directory of evidence based medicine resources. |
