This can refer to the results of clinical trials, or it could be a systematic review of all the research on a particular condition. A good starting point is the Cochrane Library, which is available to everyone in England, and contains a database of systematic reviews, also known as secondary research. Secondary research is created by systematically locating, appraising, and summarising evidence from scientific research in order to obtain a reliable overview.
If you don’t find anything here, then you could try a database, called PubMed. This is a searchable database containing over 19 million citations from biomedical articles. Citations give you the title, author, journal details, and in most cases, an abstract of the article. In some cases, you can also get the full text of the article for free, although most will not be freely available.
Another database you could try is the TRIP database. This has been designed for health professionals, but it is free to use and accessible to patients too. Just type in the name of the treatment or condition you are looking for, and TRIP will identify evidence based synopses, systematic reviews, primary research, and patient information.
Many journal publishers are making their journals freely available, also known as “open access”. One collection, PubMed Central, contains more than 800 journals where there is no charge to read the articles. Some journals, such as Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine, only make a selection of their articles freely available.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Patient information sources
In addition to NHS Choices, there are other information sources available to patients:
Clinical Knowledge Summaries provide Information for Patients, written for a UK audience. You can browse by title, subject, or publisher. The information has been researched and written by experts, so it is reliable and relevant to the UK audience.
Henry Ford Health System provides an online Health Encyclopaedia, which contains more than 11,000 pages about diseases, symptoms, medical tests, injuries, and other common health and medical questions. This site has been developed for an American audience, and therefore the descriptions and terminology for some procedures and treatments will differ.
EQUIP (Electronic Quality Information for the Public) is an NHS gateway to quality health and social care information for the West Midlands public. There are links to information resources in almost 100 languages and a directory of more than 4,000 national and local support groups and services.
NOAH (New York Online Access to Health) aims to provide access to high-quality, full-text consumer health information in English and Spanish that is accurate, timely, relevant, and unbiased. You can browse by health topic or via an A-Z index. Again, as this site has been created for a non-UK audience, please be aware that not everything will apply to you.
The Health on the Net Foundation has developed a set of criteria with which its member sites must comply. Therefore, when you search this site, only sites containing good quality health information will be identified.
Patient UK contains comprehensive health information as provided by GPs and nurses to patients during consultations. There are patient information leaflets, information about medicines and drugs, videos, audio, stories, translated patient information, details of more than 1,800 patient support groups and information for carers.
CAPHIS (consumer and patient health information section) provides a top 100 list of health websites you can trust. It is an American resource, so the sites tend to be American, but it is useful as it only includes resources that meet the quality criteria for currency, credibility, content and audience.
Clinical Knowledge Summaries provide Information for Patients, written for a UK audience. You can browse by title, subject, or publisher. The information has been researched and written by experts, so it is reliable and relevant to the UK audience.
Henry Ford Health System provides an online Health Encyclopaedia, which contains more than 11,000 pages about diseases, symptoms, medical tests, injuries, and other common health and medical questions. This site has been developed for an American audience, and therefore the descriptions and terminology for some procedures and treatments will differ.
EQUIP (Electronic Quality Information for the Public) is an NHS gateway to quality health and social care information for the West Midlands public. There are links to information resources in almost 100 languages and a directory of more than 4,000 national and local support groups and services.
NOAH (New York Online Access to Health) aims to provide access to high-quality, full-text consumer health information in English and Spanish that is accurate, timely, relevant, and unbiased. You can browse by health topic or via an A-Z index. Again, as this site has been created for a non-UK audience, please be aware that not everything will apply to you.
The Health on the Net Foundation has developed a set of criteria with which its member sites must comply. Therefore, when you search this site, only sites containing good quality health information will be identified.
Patient UK contains comprehensive health information as provided by GPs and nurses to patients during consultations. There are patient information leaflets, information about medicines and drugs, videos, audio, stories, translated patient information, details of more than 1,800 patient support groups and information for carers.
CAPHIS (consumer and patient health information section) provides a top 100 list of health websites you can trust. It is an American resource, so the sites tend to be American, but it is useful as it only includes resources that meet the quality criteria for currency, credibility, content and audience.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Types of information
If you haven’t found the information you need or you want to read the original research, then this post will introduce you to some more in-depth sources.
There are different types of information; in medicine, these are described as levels of evidence, which refers to the level of quality and reliability of the information. Information comes in the form of patient information leaflets, published research, evidence-based summaries, patient experience, advice from friends and family, and personal experience.
The next few posts will look at each level, and provide links to resources for each of these areas.
There are different types of information; in medicine, these are described as levels of evidence, which refers to the level of quality and reliability of the information. Information comes in the form of patient information leaflets, published research, evidence-based summaries, patient experience, advice from friends and family, and personal experience.
The next few posts will look at each level, and provide links to resources for each of these areas.
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