To acquire the evidence, you must develop an effective search strategy. Search strategies may vary from one database to another. Searching for the evidence-based literature is an iterative process and will involve one or more of these strategies: identifying synonyms and subject terms for each concept, trying broad and narrow concept searching, adding and subtracting concepts to decrease or increase, respectively, the number of results, and filtering results according to particular parameters such as dates published, type of article, etc.
Once again, the clinical question is: For a 55 year old woman with osteoporosis, is a regimen of calcium, vitamin D, and/or weight bearing exercise as effective as treatment with bisphosponates in preventing additional bone loss?
Here is an example of a search strategy:
There are a variety of article databases in which to search for the evidence-based literature. Click on the various tabs on this webpage to explore these databases and other helpful resources.
Use article databases to search for primary research articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and clinical practice guidelines.
Unlimited users.
Embase provides coverage of the biomedical literature, with over 31 million records from over 8,500 currently published journals, including over 7 million records and more than 3,000 journals that are not covered by MEDLINE. Offers extensive coverage of searchable conference abstracts dating back to 2009. It currently indexes over 6,000 conferences covering ~350,000 conference abstracts each year. Embase uses Emtree, the Elsevier Life Science thesaurus: a hierarchically structured, controlled vocabulary for biomedicine and the related life sciences. It includes a range of terms for drugs, diseases, medical devices and essential life science concepts
Unlimited users.
Updated monthly. Provides bibliographic indexing from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. Contains bibliographic citations (e.g., authors, title, and journal reference) and author abstracts from 4,500 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 foreign countries.
Journal articles are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Citations are created by the National Library of Medicine, International MEDLARS partners, and cooperating professional organizations.
Corresponds in part to the following print indexes: Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing.
Unlimited users.
Updated monthly. Provides bibliographic indexing from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. Contains bibliographic citations (e.g., authors, title, and journal reference) and author abstracts from 4,500 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 foreign countries.
Journal articles are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Citations are created by the National Library of Medicine, International MEDLARS partners, and cooperating professional organizations.
MEDLINE has worldwide coverage, but 88% of the citations in current MEDLINE are to English-language sources and 76% have English abstracts.
NLM provides free access to MEDLINE through PubMed.
Unlimited users.
Updated monthly. Indexes and abstracts over 1,700 sources, including international material selected from periodicals written in over 35 languages. Contains current chapter and book coverage with worldwide English-language material published from 1987 to the present, and adds over 60,000 references annually through monthly updates. Covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines.
Has over 1.8 million individual records, some dating back to 1887.
Unlimited users.
Updated weekly. The Web of Science Core Collection is a group of databases (Science Citation Index Expanded, 1900-present; Social Sciences Citation Index, 1900-present; Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1975-present) that together cover more than 21,000 journals across all disciplines. The Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present) tracks thousands of additional journals that are being considered for inclusion in the main citation indexes. Other files track references from conference proceedings (1990-present) and citations to books (2005-present).
The Web of Science platform currently also provides temporary access to several databases that are not part of the Core Collection, including Biosis Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
On the search results page, results are categorized by type of article, including "Guidelines."
Additional links to guidelines may be found in the Residency Resources section.
CURRENT Practice Guidelines in Primary Care 2024 by
The authoritative guidelines primary care clinicians need to diagnose and treat the most common outpatient conditions--compiled, distilled, and updated for easy referencing Striking the perfect balance between brevity and clinical necessity, this acclaimed annual resource presents all the latest evidence-based guidelines clinicians need to treat the most common outpatient conditions. The most thorough print compendium of guidelines for primary care practice, the book features content drawn from government agencies, expert panels, medical specialty organizations, and other professional and scientific authorities. CURRENT Practice Guidelines in Primary Care 2024 converts lengthy and cumbersome text into a practical, relevant collection of available options for busy clinicians. This go-to guide converts the tremendous amount of information on the web into a practical, relevant collection of usable data for busy clinicians. Each topic is carefully selected for relevance to the office practice of ambulatory medicine and the text is presented in a convenient, easy-to-navigate outline and tabular format. * Content is drawn from a wide array of recommendations from government agencies, expert panels, medical specialty organizations, and other professional and scientific authorities * NEW: Updates reflecting the review of more than 150 guidelines * NEW: Updates to guidelines for screening/prevention of ASCVD; anxiety disorders in children, pediatric obesity, chronic pain, neonatal hyperbilirubinemia; and osteoarthritis * NEW: Numerous topics have been added, including screening and prevention of eating disorders, COVID vaccination in pregnancy, prevention of pelvic floor dysfunction, management of chest pain, left ventricular thrombus, delirium * Guideline Discordance tables highlight when major guidelines do not mirror each other * Topics are carefully selected for relevance to the office practice of ambulatory medicine, and the text is enhanced by a convenient outline and tabular format * Screening and prevention of conditions have been combined to enhance clinician use
Pediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines and Policies by
Keep current with the latest clinical practice guidelines and policies from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), covering 37 conditions plus every AAP policy statement, clinical report, and technical report though December 2023. KEY FEATURES New: "Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Obesity" Printed text and eBook access, including full text of the new AAP clinical practice guideline and 2023 AAP policy statements, clinical reports, and technical reports Key Action Statements for all AAP clinical practice guidelines More than 600 policy statements, clinical reports, technical reports, and AAP endorsed policies Five-section organization for ease of use
These types of resources use an appraisal process to review and evaluate primary research studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses and apply scaled ratings or graded recommendations. When physicians use a point-of-care tool, they know that studies have been vetted for quality, validity, and relevance, and thus, they can feel confident in utilizing the information right away at the point of care with a patient.
Unlimited users.
Updated daily. Evidence-based point-of-care information for clinicians, organized by disease state. DynaMed Plus includes ICD9/ICD10 codes, images, Micromedex drug content, and access from electronic health records. A mobile app is available to users who sign up for a personal account.
ACP Journal Club - a monthly feature in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Research staff and clinical editors rigorously appraise original studies and systematic reviews from more than 120 journals and summarize them in structured abstracts and commentaries. Included studies need to meet specific study design quality criteria and are rated on a scale from 1 to 7 on clinical relevance and newsworthiness in its field.
Searching Skills Toolkit by
Searching Skills Toolkit is an expert guide to help you find the clinical evidence you need more easily and effectively. Clearly presented with useful tips and advice, flow charts, diagrams and real-life clinical scenarios, it shows the best methods for finding quality evidence. From deciding where to start, to building a search strategy, refining results and critical appraisal, it is a step-by-step guide to the process of finding healthcare evidence, and is designed for use by all health and social care professionals. This second edition has been expanded with new chapters on searching for sources to support evidence-based management decision making and how to better enable your patients to make informed choices. It has also been fully updated to include new web sources, open source reference management software, and new training resources and exercises. Searching Skills Toolkit is an ideal reference for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, managers and decision makers, researchers and students.
Painless Evidence-Based Medicine by 
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