Forwarded from lis-medical. Any additional suggestions?
Lesley,
You might find the following abstract from the Symposium on
Systematic reviews held this year interesting. It is on the Web at:
http://www.ihs.ox.ac.uk/csm/sympabs.html#talk25
Suggest you might want to follow up Dr Daly, contact as below.
My suggestion would be to construct an Internet search protocol and then
work your way through it systematically. Examples can be found at
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~scharr/ir/proto.html
AND
http://nzhta.chmeds.ac.nz/nzhtainfo/protocol.htm
I would then follow this up with a Boolean Search using Alta Vista
Advanced Query and then finally a search of an Internet Metasearch
engine. I find the use of filters with Alta Vista searching (e.g.
AND-ed with "clinical trial*" or "controlled trial*") helps to sort
the wheat from the chaff.
Hope this helps - I have a number of documents that I have produced
on using the Internet for searching for EBM that I could send to you
if required.
Regards
Andrew Booth
Surfing Systematically - Experience Of Searching The Internet
Oliver J Campbell, Conal Daly, June Cody, Izhar H Khan, Marion K
Campbell, Sheila A Wallace, Alison M MacLeod
BACKGROUND: The Internet is a growing medium for the dissemination of
information. It is important to examine its value as a source of
trials - published and ongoing - relevant to systematic reviews. We
are currently undertaking six systematic literature reviews concerning
the use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) in end-stage
renal disease (ESRD). OBJECTIVE: To assess the Internet as a source
of further relevant randomised controlled trials in addition to those
already identified by a search of five conventional electronic
databases in the context of our reviews. METHODS: Following searches
of five electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, BIOSIS and the
Cochrane Library) using a modified version of the Cochrane
Collaboration strategy for randomised controlled trials, the
world-wide web was searched using the Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com/)
search engine and a simplified version of the electronic search
strategy. The results were assessed for their relevance to the topics
under study. RESULTS: The simplified search strategy produced 142
hits of which nineteen were obvious duplicates. Of the remaining 123,
fifteen were deemed unavailable or out-of-date. Of the 108 which were
thus assessed, twenty-seven contained relevant information about
trials relevant to the use of erythropoietin in humans. From these
hits, a total of thirty-nine trials were identified. Nine trials have
been deemed possible (quasi) randomised controlled trials or
meta-analyses, and of these, only four were relevant to the topics
under review. Three of these trials had previously been identified by
electronic searches on the five major databases but the fourth had
been terminated prematurely because of increased mortality in the
treatment group and never published conventionally. CONCLUSION: In
this area of medicine, the Internet did not reveal further completed
trials but did generate a trial which had been terminated early.
Currently, established electronic databases are more efficient at
identifying relevant published trials, whereas the Internet may serve
as a useful source of unpublished trials.
Contact details:
Dr C Daly
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics
University of Aberdeen
Polwarth Building
Foresterhill
Aberdeen
AB25 2ZD
UK
Tel: +44 (0)1224 681818 ext 53024
Fax: +44 (0)1224 699884
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> I am currently part of a Welsh Office of Research & Development
> funded systematic review of the health outcomes from collaboration
> between health and local government agencies. We have almost
> completed the electronic search phase of the review (21 databases!)
> but before doing so I would like to search the Internet. Although, I
> am an experienced Internet searcher I do not have any experience of
> Internet searching within the systematic review protocol. I have
> briefly searched the literature but, to date, cannot find any
> 'evidence' of Internet searching in a systematic review. I would be
> most grateful for any suggestions, hints, pointers, or comments that
> any of the list members may have of their own experiences of Internet
> searching in a systematic review.
>
> Many thanks and apologies for cross-posting.
>
> ___________________________________
> Lesley Sander
> Research Officer
> Department of Information Services
> UWCM
> Duthie Library
> Heath Park
> Cardiff CF4 4XN
> [log in to unmask]
> 01222 742327
>
Andrew Booth BA MSc Dip Lib ALA
Director of Information Resources
School of Health & Related Research (ScHARR)
Regent Court
30 Regent Street
SHEFFIELD
S1 4DA
Tel: 0114 222 5420 or 5214 Fax: 0114 272 4095
The author of Netting the Evidence:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~scharr/ir/netting.html
and Trawling the Net:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~scharr/ir/trawling.html
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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