Lab Tests Online

The library has recently made a link on our “For Patients and Consumers” site to Lab Tests Online. This site, hosted by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, provides easy to read quality information on diagnostic lab tests. The entries are written in a Q&A format and contain information on what the test attempts to diagnose and how the test is administered. A section on “How Reliable is Laboratory Testing” helps to explain in simple terms why tests do not always rule in or rule out a diagnosis 100% of the time. This is a high-quality site for you to recommend to your patients who wish to learn more about their tests.

Searching in the New Year

What do Cookbooks, Earthquakes, Nasal Lavage, Osteochondrosis and Poetry have in common? They are all new Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms that can be used in searching MEDLINE beginning in 2009. These are five of the 446 new headings available for 2009. Why is this important? If, when searching MEDLINE, you focus on using appropriate subject headings instead of keywords, you will find that your results are more specific and, hopefully, relevant. The easiest way to do this is in OVID, make certain that the “Map Term to Subject Heading” box is checked off. In PubMed, type the subject term followed by [mh]. To find a list of ALL MeSH headings, use this page on the National Library of Medicine site. If you would like a refresher on the best ways to incorporate subject searching in MEDLINE, contact Len Levin in the library (X6-6028 or len.levin@umassmed.edu).

Oxford English Dictionary

c1230 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Corpus Cambr.) (1962) 92 Thu seist the nis no neod na medecine.

Did you know that it was in the early 13th century that the word "medicine" first came into use in the English language? The Oxford English Dictionary is not just a mechanism to look up spellings and pronunciations of words, it is also the premier source to trace our language back to its early roots. And the Lamar Soutter Library now has the Oxford English Dictionary available online. From the library's homepage, click "Research Tools & Resources", then "Reference Resources" and then "Oxford English Dictionary". Happy "Haruestbels" (the earliest use, from 1597, of "Harvest Festival" or "Thanksgiving") to all.

Scientific Writing Resources

For everyone interested in writing, and your focus is the Thursday Memo, a conference, or a refereed journal, there is a wealth of literature offering assistance that ranges from grammar to getting published available in the journal literature. Searching in PubMed, try the phrase: writing/standards [mh] or the phrase: authorship [mh]. Take the results and combine with a keyword to narrow your search, e.g. writing/standards [mh] AND methodology. Using the limiter [mh], retrieves articles indexed using the term writing/standards and indicates a focus of the article.

To look at writing and grammar resources, check out the library’s web site: click on Research Tools and Resources - Reference Resources - Writing and Grammer Resources (or click here)

Two Methods to Search the Cochrane Library

On our Evidence-Based Medicine page, the Lamar Soutter Library offers two ways to search the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. If you wish to peruse the library by topic and/or review group (a great way to get a feel for available reviews), use the second link (browse only) on the page. If you would like to search by keyword or want to access the full-text systematic review (called EBM Topic Reviews), use the top "Ovid" link. Either way, you are accessing the "gold standard" of in terms of best evidence - through and consistently updated reviews of best outcomes.

Natural Standard – Evidence-Based Complementary Health Information

“Is Holy Basil an effective herbal therapy for depression?” This is an actual question that came up a few months ago at chart rounds. The answer ("no") was found in “Natural Standard”, a database highlighting complementary and alternative therapies. Not only does Natural Standard provide entries for herbals (such as Holy Basil, St. John’s Wort, Ginkgo, etc.) and complementary therapies (like acupuncture and Reiki), it also discusses scientific levels of evidence for common and/or studied uses when available. Natural Standard is on the Lamar Soutter Library’s web page under “Research Tools & Resources”, then “Find Resources by Subject” and then “Complementary Therapies”.

Searching the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC)

Searching NGC can be frustrating and retrieving relevant guidelines can be hit or miss. Here are a few suggestions that may help. When you open NGC, click on “Detailed Search” located on the left of the screen. The “Detailed Search” template offers multiple search boxes. Use a few boxes to describe your topic of interest rather than trying to define your topic narrowly. The search boxes to start with are: Keyword; Disease Condition; Guideline Category; Age of Target Population and Years. You can try searching with all of these categories or use three or four. Restricting the number of years you want to search is an efficient way to control your results.

Google Scholar

Are you a Googler? Do you Google at least a few times a day? Do you use Google as a tool to locate medical information? This is not necessarily bad as long as you follow up and confirm your findings in a more trusted (e.g., edited) source such as DynaMed, eMedicine, MEDLINE, etc. In fact, using Google can often uncover “gray literature” such as conference proceedings, technical reports and white papers that are NOT found in the traditional medical databases. But, if you do use Goggle for medical purposes, it’s always best to use the version of Google known as Google Scholar. Google Scholar searches the Internet specifically for research-oriented online materials. And, if you access Google Scholar from the quick links list on the Lamar Soutter Library’s web site, you will search a version that includes links to our full text when available (as well citation-related information). But remember, Google Scholar, like regular Google, posts results based on their ranking system as opposed to most recent or subject-relative like MEDLINE and other medical databases so what you find may be good but may not be the latest or the best.

TRIP

Try using TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) to help you answer your clinical questions. TRIP is a free evidence based medicine resource committed to delivering high quality clinical information. TRIP searches for evidence as well as core journals if you select a specialty to search. Take a look at “EBM Links” and “search help”. The url is: http://www.tripdatabase.com/index.html.

“The Clinics in North America” – one stop shopping

The “Clinics in North America” series of journals have long been a leading source of excellent review articles. Each “Clinics” issue will focus its content upon a single topic. For example, the March 08 issue of “Medical Clinics in North America” is a review on hospital care and hospital medicine and includes articles such as “Care Transitions for Hospitalized Patients”, “Pain Management in the Hospitalized Patient”, “End-of-Life Care for the Hospitalized Patient” and “The State of Hospital Medicine in 2008”. All of the available online clinics series can be browsed or searched using MD Consult. Open MD Consult from the left navigation bar of the library home page and then choose “The Clinics” on the blue bar at the top of the page.

Library Corner Blog Now Available (Monday Memo 5/5/08)

Starting today, all of the “Library Corner” entries in Monday Memo will also be available in blog format at http://familymedlibrarycorner.blogspot.com/. We have added all of the entries since the first library corner in October of last year and will continue to post future entries as well. This blog is searchable so if you are looking for a past tip, type a keyword into the “search blog” box and you should easily find an entry from the archive. Or, you can browse the postings newest to oldest as well. Lastly, if you are now in the process of setting up RSS feeds (based on last-week’s Library Corner), you can even subscribe to this blog in your RSS reader! (just look for the “Subscribe To” button at the bottom of the blog page).

RSS Feeds – a new way to keep current (Monday Memo 4/28/08)

Do you try to keep current with the literature through e-mail alerts but find that your inbox just gets too full? An answer to this problem is RSS feeds. Many of the major medical journals, PubMed, plus many of your favorite news and sports sites offer RSS feeds. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. All you need to do is a) set up a reader (such as Google Reader or My Yahoo), and b) sign up for your alerts to be posted there. Then, when you are ready to check your alerts, go to your page and you will see them all in one place. Want more information or help setting up RSS? Check with Len Levin (len.levin@umassmed.edu) or Jim Comes (james.comes@umassmed.edu) in the Lamar Soutter Library for detailed instructions or a copy of our RSS handout.

Finding full text in QUIN (Monday Memo 4/16/08)

Here are two quick tips. If you are looking for the fulltext of an article, try QUIN, the library’s online catalog. QUIN offers access to over 14,000 fulltext journals. The list includes many journals which may not be indexed in Medline. Also, an efficient strategy to access Family Medicine oriented journal articles is through PubMed. Type in the phrase, Clinical Inquiries, and you will retrieve more than 700 articles. You can combine the phrase, Clinical Inquiries and a topic, i.e. knee injury.

Single Citation Matcher (Monday Memo 3/18/08)

You have probably been in this situation before. You remember an article that you read some time ago but can not remember all of the citation details. Or you are discussing a case with a colleague and the colleague says “there was a great article on just that topic in American Family Physician back in 2003.” Both PubMed and OVID/MEDLINE have a “Citation Matching” tool. In OVID, it is the second tab from the left above the search box. In PubMed, it is located on the blue left-hand navigation bar under PubMed Services. Just enter the pieces of information you know about the article and OVID or PubMed will try to find a match.

Cross e-Book Searching using StatRef! (Monday Memo 3/17/08)

One of the benefits of electronic books is that most of them can be easily searched – something very helpful for medical references that are rarely read cover-to-cover. With StatRef!, an electronic book package carried by the Lamar Soutter Library, you can search 36 high quality title simultaneously. Included in our StatRef! package are titles such as 5-Minute Clinical Consult (edited by our own Frank Domino), Family Medicine Principles & Practice, the Merck Manual and a number of the titles in the Current Diagnosis and Treatment series. You can find StatRef! under our “Online Books” link on the library web site’s left-hand navigation bar.

Frustrated because you can't get UpToDate off campus? (Monday Memo 3/3/08)

We have a similar product called eMedicine that works much like UpToDate and IS available via proxy from off site. As in UpToDate, you can search or browse for content. But unique to eMedicine is that each online article is structured in a similar format. Need info on a Differential Diagnosis? Link straight to that section of the article. Same thing for workup, treatment, following and, in many cases, prevention and screening. eMedicine is located on the library home page on the left "quick links" bar just below UpToDate.

OVID Launches new interface (Monday Memo 2/11/08)

Have you seen the new OVID interface yet? You will find the same databases and same functionality as before but with a whole new look. Here are a few things to keep in mind when searching the new OVID: The start page is now called “advanced search” but works similar to the start page of the former OVID interface. Limits and search history are now hidden as a default – just click the right-pointing arrow next to Limits (in the green box) and Search History (in the blue box) to open. The Result Manger (where you can save and e-mail your results) now appears of the left instead of the bottom of the screen. Also on the left is the brand-new Search Aid tool. When you conduct a new search, you are now automatically taken directly to your displayed results list - use the scroll bar to move back to the top of the page to see your search history and other options. There are many more new features in addition to these and we would be happy to meet with you individually or as a group for a quick review – just let us know. – Len Levin (len.levin@umassmed.edu) and Jim Comes (james.comes@umassmed.edu).

Global Health Database (Monday Memo 1/7/08)

New to the OVID suite of databases offered by the Lamar Soutter Library is Global Health. Global Health provides an alternative, complementary point of reference and includes citations from foreign language journals, books, research reports, patents and standards, dissertations, conference proceedings, annual reports, public health, developing country information, and other difficult to obtain material. Specialized subject matter includes communicable diseases, human nutrition, medicinal plants and community and public health. Like MEDLINE and our many other resources, full-text linking, when available, is presented at the citation level. And if you have searched MEDLINE using the OVID platform in the past, you will be happy to find that the search features work the same. To access Global Health, open the Lamar Soutter Library webpage and click OVID on the left-hand navigation bar.

Virtual Catalog (Monday Memo 12/10/07)

While the Lamar Soutter Library offers a large number of quality medical information resources, there are times when you may need or want something else. You can often find that something else through the Virtual Catalog. With the Virtual Catalog, you can access books from the 19 member libraries of the Boston Library Consortium. This group of libraries includes both academic and public libraries. Using Virtual Catalog, you can find books on other subjects you may need for your work or novels to read simply for pleasure. And, the best part is that the service is free. Books are delivered to the Lamar Soutter Library and can be checked out for 42 days. All you need to enter the system is your library barcode. Find the link for the Virtual Catalog on the left navigation bar of the Lamar Soutter Library’s home page.

Medical Letter of Drugs & Therapeutics (Monday Memo 12/3/07)

The Lamar Soutter Library now offers online access to the Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics and its companion publication Treatment Guidelines. The Medical Letter, published by the non-profit Consumers Union, offers peer-reviewed critical appraisals of new drugs as well as comparative reviews of older drugs. Included in the online version of the Medical Letter is the ability to search and browse the archives back to 1988 and the immensely popular Handbook of Antimicrobial Therapy. Access the Medical Letter and the Treatment Guidelines through the online journals pages (browse under M) of the Lamar Soutter Library web site.

Best Evidence and the Journal of Family Practice (Monday Memo 11/12/07)

Many of you are probably aware of the “Clinical Inquiries” features that are regularly published in the Journal of Family Practice. These articles are great windows into best evidence from a family medicine perspective. Here is a simple way to use PubMed to find Clinical Inquiries articles going back to when they first began in 2001. 1) Open PubMed from the Lamar Soutter Library home page, 2) copy this search string: "J Fam Pract"[Journal:__jrid4734] AND "clinical inquiries", 3) paste it into the PubMed search box and then add your topic (for example: "J Fam Pract"[Journal:__jrid4734] AND "clinical inquiries" AND ADHD). As we have this journal available in full-text, you will be able to click straight through from the citation to the entire article. Would you like to set up an alert service so that new Clinical Inquiries come to your e-mail inbox each month? Contact Len Levin or Jim Comes in the library and we can help you do so by setting up a free MyNCBI account.

Library Corner (Monday Memo 10/29/07)

The National Library of Medicine now has a website called DailyMed (http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov), a resource for online pharmaceutical package inserts. Contents are updated on a regular basis to include new “black box” warnings and other newly reported adverse effects. Select the RSS option to have updates automatically sent to your RSS reader. Don’t have an RSS reader? The library can help you set one up.