There may be questions on the test about “where would you go to find [info]” or “Which online database would this study be found in.” The are easy to guess if you know at least what most databases contain and how often they are updated.
- Medline: Most of us know how Medline works, but:
- Know how to vaguely use MeSH terms. MeSH (medical subject headings) is the National Library of Medicine’s controlled vocabulary thesaurus. Each bibliographic reference is associated with a set of MeSH terms assigned to describe the content of an article. There are more than 19,000 main headings in MeSH, as well as thousands of cross-references that assist in finding the most appropriate MeSH headings. MeSH terms are arranged in a hierarchy, or “tree structure,” that permits searching at various levels of detail, from the most general to more narrow levels, to find the most precise terms. Subject specialists at the National Library of Medicine update MeSH annually.
- Pubmed is an interface used to search Medline, as well as additional biomedical content. Ovid is an interface for searching only Medline content. Pubmed is more user-friendly and allows you to search through more content than Ovid. However, Ovid Medline allows you to perform a more focused search. You will get slightly different results by searching in each database.
- High-profile journals like JAMA or the New England Journal of Medicine are indexed within days, but other journals take weeks to months.
- International Pharmaceutical Abstracts: pharmaceutical abstracts from 750 journals including foreign and state pharmacy journals, in addition to key US medical and pharmacy journals. Many are not included in Medline, but subject descriptions are inconsistent.
- Iowa Drug Information Service Database: Full-text article from 1966 to present in about 200 medical and pharmacy journals (mostly US). Updated monthly.
- Clin-Alert: more than 100 medical and pharmacy journals. Mosty focused on adverse events, drug interactions and medical/legal issues. Good for recent reports of adverse events.
- Excerpta Medical: more than 7000 journals from 74 countries from 1974 to the present. Articles appear within 10 days of publication, often before Medline.
- Lact-Med is a free online resource for lactation guidelines.
- Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation is a subscription-based service.
- Orange Book – therapeutic equivalence
- Purple Book – biosimilars
- Red Book – a collection of package inserts & pricing info (historical and current).
- US Pharmacopeia – Drug info and storage info
- Facts and Comparisons – Drug info grouped by therapeutic category
- Trissel’s: IV Compatability, storage and handling