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PHAS 6013: Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Practice: Construct a search strategy

Steps for acquiring evidence

  1. Identify a clinical problem
  2. Create a well-defined research question [using PICO]
  3. Translate PICO into a search strategy
    • Brainstorm and gather synonyms
    • Construct the search strategy
  4. Select most likely resources (databases)
  5. Tailor search strategy to database(s)
  6. Save search & export results to reference manager

Visual queue for AND OR NOT Boolean Operators

Image from https://www.quora.com/What-makes-Boolean-Algebra-different-than-Binary-Code

Gather synonyms

Think broadly and abstractly!

  • Terms with the same meaning
    • Hypertension/High blood pressure
  • Terms with alternate spellings
    • Leukemia/Leukaemia
  • Complex concepts described inconsistently
    • Long-term, patient-reported satisfaction…/Patients’ experiences with…
  • Umbrella terms and specific names
    • Sexually transmitted disease/genital warts, syphilis
  • Keywords and database-specific subject terms
    • Cancer, tumor/Neoplasm (MeSH)

Construct search strategies

Construct search by combining concepts with Boolean operators. Use keywords and subject terms in combination.

Boolean Logic Operators:

AND limits results, both concepts stoma AND bowel cancer
OR more results, either concept stoma OR colostomy
NOT excludes concept(s) from results java NOT coffee

Translating PICO into a search strategy

Understand MeSH

  Direct Link to NCBI video tutorial on searching with MeSH

  Direct Link to National Institutes of Health interactive tutorial on MeSH