Keeping Current

Chicago Urban Health Outreach ProjectKeeping Current in

Health Science Information

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Welcome!Tutorial Contents

Keeping up with NLM databases Other important health science

sites Internet search engines CUHOP resources available

beyond the project completion

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Keeping up with NLM

Naturally, the National Library of Medicine updates all of its databases as often as necessary. PubMed adds approximately 2700 citations every day, and its features are always evolving. ClinicalTrials.gov

and MEDLINEplus are also updated on a daily basis. Let’s go over a few pointers on how to keep

current with these vital databases.

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Tutorial - This NLM-designed tutorial is updated whenever necessary, and will give you the most thorough refresher on PubMed you’ll ever need

New/Noteworthy - Contains various updates and changes to the features of PubMed. These are sporadic and often technical, but you may wish to look them over on occasion.

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Overview - This page will give you the lowdown on what PubMed is and does, its governance, selection process, and lots of other details. Great for a refresher.

Help/FAQ - Contains all the information contained in the Tutorial, arranged into a simple text format with a clear table of contents. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) addresses the most common questions about using PubMed.

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About - Provides a brief introduction to this site

Site Map - Lays out a virtual table of contents of the site, allowing you to grasp the content in one visual layout

FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions. Check here first if you have a question about how MEDLINEplus works.

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Resources - Contains lots of FAQ-style information regarding clinical trials in general - very helpful for lay users of the database and those interested in enrolling in trials.

Help - A table of contents of just about all possible questions you could have about the database and how to use it

What’s New - Essentially, a list of press releases of new studies acively recruiting patients.

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Beyond NLM

Of course, NLM tools are not the only way to keep up with the health science literature, and with what’s

good on the web. Let’s look at a handful of other resources that work as great starting points.

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Healthweb is maintained by a consortium of health science librarians at Big Ten Universities and UIC. It provides up-to-date links to quality information by subject. It’s more broad in

scope than MEDLINEplus, and not limited to consumer health-related materials. It’s a great starting point for any web

search in the health sciences.

www.healthweb.org

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Similar in approach and scope to Healthweb, The New York Online Access to Health (NOAH) sometimes surpasses

Healthweb in the breadth of resources on a given topic,and contains Spanish materials. Though based in New York, most of the information is not state specific and still highly useful.

www.noah-health.org

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The National Guidelines Clearinghouse is a storehouse of clinical evidence-based guidelines submitted from clinics

across the nation. It can be very useful in finding a clinical guideline when time is short, but it is best used as a storehouse

of examples to guide the formation of your own guidelines.

www.guidelines.gov

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A year ago I gave you some tips on Search Engines. Searching technology is always developing, and a year from now another engine will likely replace Google at the top of the heap. Also, some engines have begun questionable practices, such as selling the top spot on their lists to the highest bidder.

It’s wise to periodically check a site like Search Engine Watch, which keeps up on the latest developments.

www.searchenginewatch.com

Reviews of Search Engines

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We’ll Be Around

The CUHOP people will still be accessible for at least a year after the end of the project for consultation and advice. Keep the CUHOP page bookmarked

and return to it whenever you need our help.

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Good Luck! Please feel free to email any questions or comments to Martin

Brennan, CUHOP Outreach Coordinator, by clicking here.

Return to the CUHOP Instruction Center Return to CUHOP main page

Go to ClinicalTrials.gov Go to PubMed Go to MEDLINEplus

Tutorial designed August 2003 by Martin Brennan

NLM website content reproduced by permission