Hi Irina et al,
Search cascades are useful for information professionals but I question
their usefulness for busy clinicians. Also, the therapy cascade in the
attachment is not complete, and UK-biased. It doesn't include the major
databases to which we all have access; BMJ's Clinical Evidence can be
helpful, indeed, but it is not indexed in MEDLINE (though it is searchable
in Google).
All of this reaffirms my position that searching for evidence is a
complex and occasionally (often?) frustrating experience for clinicians.
Is there one rubric that helps for most questions? one meta-search tool I
would recommend if a clinician had six minutes to search? Is there a
single source of information that I would rely on in the event I had the
same harried physician in front of me who needed answers, now?
The simple answer is no. Context is important. The question or information
need has to be matched to a source. As your cascade suggests, domain is
important and can take you in numerous directions. Are the tertiary tools
like Clinical Evidence, FirstConsult and Cochrane indispensible? Sure, but
not everyone has a subscription to these proprietary tools.
Until we can figure out a way to make medical information/evidence open
access this is the landscape we will have to work within. my two cents!
Dean Giustini, UBC biomedical branch librarian
Diamond Health Care Centre and Vancouver Hospital
Vancouver BC, Canada V5Z 1M9
blog: weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/googlescholar
On Tue, 19 Feb 2008, Irina Ibraghimova wrote:
> Last year (after participating in Oxford workshop for EBM teachers in 2006)
> we started to use Search cascades (that was presented at once of the
> sessions by Sharon Straus). They are based on 5S approach (Haynes RB. Of
> studies, syntheses, synopses, summaries, and systems: the "5S" evolution of
> information services for evidence-based health care decisions. ACP Journal
> Club. 2006 Nov-Dec;145:A8). It depends on the audience – we are working
> with practitioners who have to find quick answer to a particular question
> and who have access to a lot of EBM resources for free (developing
> countries). First we provide an overview of main types of resources – then
> they have to find an answer to their question of interest – and make their
> own conclusions which of the EBM resources are more appropriate - it really
> worked... But I would like to here comments on this approach from the list.
>
> Some examples of those search cascades are in the attachment
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Irina Ibraghimova
>
> Coordinator, Medical Information Resources
>
> American International Health Alliance
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Evidence based health (EBH)
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dr. Carlos Cuello
> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 7:21 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Google vs Trip/Cochrane, and the promise of mahalo - i use
> looknow.com
>
>
>
> An excellent idea. And even further, we could use strategies instead (or at
> the same time with) the search engines alone. I personally use a strategy
> instead of a single search engine (as most of us do I think). Maybe thats
> why TRIP is the most efficient search engine. I use the one I learned @
> Oxford
>
>
> http://www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1527
>
> Dependign of the type of question -
> Intervention: Cochrane - DARE - CENTRAL - pubmed clinical queries
> Other type of question: pubmed clinical queries (with caution because we are
> entering a zone of DOEs)
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Carlos A. Cuello-García, MD, Doctoral Candidate
> Director, Centre for Evidence-Based Practice-ITESM
> Cochrane-ITESM coordinator. Professor of Paediatrics and Clinical Research
> Avda. Morones Prieto 3000 pte. Col. Doctores. CITES 3er. piso,Monterrey NL,
> México. CP64710 Phone. [+52](81)8888-2154 y 2141
> www.cmbe.net
>
> The content of this data transmission must not be considered an offer,
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