Medline searching

Search strategy

• Compose your question
• Analyse the elements of your question. Use themethodological filter grid to help this.
  • problem type: most questions are one of 4 categories
    • • • prognosis studies: methodological filter: best single term to add
          explode subject term cohort-studies
        • therapy studies: methodological filter: best single term to add
          clinical trial as publication type
        • diagnosis studies: methodological filter: best single term to add
          sensitivity as keyword
        • etiology studies: methodological filter: best single term to add
          risk as keyword
  • intervention or exposure
  • condition
  • outcome
  • patient group: age range , sex
  • publication date and language
  • publication type eg: clinical trial, review
• Search Ovid Medline on individual headings and keywords separately. Explode (exp) will produce everything below the heading. Focus (*) will pick only the major articles.
  • Search by
    • • • keyword: searches database for the exact words used by you but relied on author using the same words. Useful for
          • • • a very specific topic
              • to try out diffrent forms of words
              • new concepts
        • author
        • subject: based on MESH headings – articles consistently indexed according to content, not words used by author. Each article is indexed as far down the tree as possible ie: each article will not appear under the generic heading. Can
          • • • broaden or narrow search
              • add subheadings todefine more precisely
  • Add limits
    • • • age
        • sex
        • publication type
        • date
        • language
• Combine the searches using boolean operatives AND and OR.

Medline searching

• Methodological filters
• Methodological filter grid to help frame questions to construct searches.