LibGuides: Evidence Based Medicine: Databases to Search

Filtered Information

▲ Systematic Reviews

Cochrane Library This link opens in a new window Collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making, and a seventh database that provides information about Cochrane groups. (HTA).
Ovid MEDLINE This link opens in a new window Enter your search query. Click on the “Limits” icon; select “Systematic Reviews” under “Subject Subsets.
PubMed LinkOut This link opens in a new window Click on “Clinical Queries” on the left side of the screen; select “Find Systematic Reviews” and enter your search query.
See our PubMed LibGuide for helpful information.
PubMed Clinical Queries This link opens in a new window The PubMed Clinical Queries Page is designed to filter one search by three clinical research areas: Clinical Study Categories, Systematic Reviews, and Medical Genetics

▲ Critically-Appraised Topics

Evaluate and synthesize multiple research studies.

UpToDate This link opens in a new window Clinical information resource designed to provide health care professionals concise, practical answers needed at the point of care.
View Quick Reference Card (PDF), watch UpToDate video demonstrations.
Essential Evidence Plus This link opens in a new window Clinical decision support system includes 13,000+ topics, guidelines, tools, and images covering common conditions, diseases, and procedures clinicians encounter daily. Every recommendation includes strength-of-evidence rating. Access POEMs (Patient Oriented Evidence that Matters) Research Summaries and set up email alerts by registering for a MySTAT!Ref account.
Natural Medicines This link opens in a new window Provides comprehensive information about dietary supplements, natural medicines, and complementary, alternative, and integrative therapies. Subscription sponsored by the School of Pharmacy.

▲ Critically-Appraised Articles

Evaluate and synthesize individual research studies.

ACP Journal Club This link opens in a new window Summarizes the best new evidence for internal medicine from over 130 clinical journals. Published as a monthly feature in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Unfiltered Information

▲ ▲ ▲ Unfiltered Information

Literature databases for RCTs, cohort studies, case-controlled studies, case series, etc.)

Ovid MEDLINE This link opens in a new window Search journal citations and abstracts for biomedical literature published worldwide. Ovid, like PubMed, is a search interface to MEDLINE. Includes links to MCW Libraries' journal subscriptions.
PubMed LinkOut This link opens in a new window Search MEDLINE for biomedical literature. Includes links to MCW Libraries' journal subscriptions.
See our PubMed LibGuide for helpful information.
PubMed Clinical Queries This link opens in a new window The PubMed Clinical Queries Page is designed to filter one search by three clinical research areas: Clinical Study Categories, Systematic Reviews, and Medical Genetics
Scopus This link opens in a new window Citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources with tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Covers the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities from over 5,000 international publishers.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window Contains citations to journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations in the field of psychology and the psychological aspects of related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, pharmacology, physiology, and social sciences. Journal coverage spans 1806-present.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window Find citations to articles and book chapters in the fields of physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences, social sciences and humanities. Full text available for licensed content.
NCBI Genome Databases This link opens in a new window Access numerous sequence databases including Nucleotide, Protein, Genome, Structure, and SNP. The remaining databases are Taxonomy, Gene, UniGene, HomoloGene, Conserved Domains, and Probe. Links to the Human Genome, Map Viewer, and BLAST are on the toolbar.
View a video on NCBI's Molecular Databases, produced by the MCW Libraries.

Trip Database
Find and high-quality research evidence to support practice and/or care.

Background Information & Expert Opinion

▲ Background Information/ Textbooks

Evidence in these resources may vary from expert opinion to high levels of evidence.

AccessEmergency Medicine This link opens in a new window Find answers for a broad spectrum of complaints encountered in the Emergency Department, ranging from neurologic and orthopedic emergencies, to poisoning and trauma. View books, procedures, videos, image library, drug database, board review resources and more.
AccessMedicine This link opens in a new window Access more than 100 medical titles, thousands of images and illustrations, videos, interactive self-assessment, cases, drug information, and time-saving diagnostic and point-of-care tools.
AccessPediatrics This link opens in a new window Content covers the entire span of pediatric practice, from neonatology through adolescent medicine. View books, procedures, videos, image library, drug database, board review resources and more.
AccessPharmacy This link opens in a new window Comprehensive resource for pharmacy education and practice including books, multimedia, drug database, drug therapy cases, study tools, and more. Subscription sponsored by the School of Pharmacy.
AccessSurgery This link opens in a new window A comprehensive resource for surgery education that provides textbooks, videos, animations, a differential diagnosis tool, interactive board review, and more.
Books@Ovid This link opens in a new window Includes electronic versions of over 150 important and trusted reference textbooks from a variety of medical and health science disciplines.
ClinicalKey This link opens in a new window Featuring topic pages, books, journals, medical and procedural videos, millions of images, content from First Consult, and much more. Account registration required for access to book PDFs, Presentation Maker, and other features.
View more information about the Sept 1 ClinicalKey Security Upgrade and MCW's ClinicalKey subscription, including setting up an account and using images.
Ebook Central This link opens in a new window Growing multidisciplinary e-book collection from leading academic publishers. Click on the Sign In or Bookshelf tabs and use your off-campus access login credentials to access your personal Ebook Central bookshelf account and special features.
See ProQuest Ebook Central LibGuide for more information
LWW Health Library This link opens in a new window Access basic science, physical examination, epidemiology, ethics and review titles plus images, multimedia, cases, and interactive question banks. Some of the supplementary content (e.g., audio heart sounds) is Flash-based, and not compatible with Apple mobile devices.
Red Book Online This link opens in a new window Provides clinically useful information on the manifestations, etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of over 200 childhood infectious diseases.
ScienceDirect Journals and Books This link opens in a new window Includes selected monographic series and individual e-books in basic and clinical sciences published by Elsevier. Use Publication Type and Subscribed & Complimentary filters to limit to MCW Libraries holdings.
Thieme Clinical Collection This link opens in a new window Includes titles from medical specialties such as internal medicine, neurosurgery, orthopedics, otolaryngology, and radiology. MCW Libraries provides access to the 2010 collection.
STAT!Ref This link opens in a new window Contains the full-text of primary care, nursing, and health science writing texts. Also includes Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Evidence Alerts, EBMcalc, Current Procedure Codes with RVUs, ICD-9-CM, ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, and ICD Code Conversion Tools.
Platform upgrade live on 9/9/19. See here for more information.

Other Resources

Evidence in these resources may vary from expert opinion to high levels of evidence.

Cell Signalling Biology This link opens in a new window Freely accessible resource for researchers, teachers and students which describes the biology of cell signalling. The emerging information on cell signalling pathways is integrated and presented within the context of specific cell types and processes. Sponsored by the Biochemical Society and Portland Press Limited.
GenomeWeb This link opens in a new window Content includes GenomeWeb Daily News, The Daily Scan, and Genome Technology magazine.
Register with an mcw.edu email account to gain access to the content within GenomeWeb.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition This link opens in a new window Provided by BadgerLink, this database provides more than 350 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines and also features abstracts and indexing for over 830 journals.
OMMBID This link opens in a new window Access a compendium of genetic disorders and information from the entire field of genetics. Find the latest knowledge on the molecular and metabolic underpinnings of a growing list of inherited diseases, as well as updates on pathophysiology and treatment.
PsychiatryOnline Premium This link opens in a new window Online access to DSM-5 Library and a collection of books, journals, practice guidelines, and medication and mental disorder information handouts for patients from American Psychiatric Association Publishing. Subscription includes access to Premium Books.
VisualDx This link opens in a new window Features thousands of medical images and specialist-level knowledge to help diagnose, treat, and manage visually identifiable diseases, drug reactions, and infections. Images from VisualDx may be used in presentations.
Learn more about using images from VisualDx.

Find the best study design for your question

Clinical Question	Suggested Best Study
Harm/Etiology	RCT > cohort > case control > case series
Clinical Exam	prospective, blind comparison to gold standard
Diagnosis	prospective, blind comparison to gold standard
Therapy	RCT > cohort > case control > case series
Prevention	RCT > cohort study > case control > case series
Prognosis	cohort study > case control > case series
Cost Benefit	economic analysis

adapted from Duke Libraries' Introduction to Evidence Based Practice

Definitions of Study Types

(From CEBM's Glossary and Duke Libraries' Intro to Evidence-Based Practice)

Case report / Case series: A report on a series of patients with an outcome of interest. No control group is involved.

Case control study: A study which involves identifying patients who have the outcome of interest (cases) and patients without the same outcome (controls), and looking back to see if they had the exposure of interest.

Cohort study: Involves identification of two groups (cohorts) of patients, one which received the exposure of interest, and one which did not, and following these cohorts forward for the outcome of interest.

Randomized controlled clinical trial: Participants are randomly allocated into an experimental group or a control group and followed over time for the variables/outcomes of interest.

Systematic review: A summary of the medical literature that uses explicit methods to perform a comprehensive literature search and critical appraisal of individual studies and that uses appropriate statistical techniques to combine these valid studies.

Meta-analysis: A systematic review that uses quantitative methods to synthesize and summarize the results.

Cross sectional study: The observation of a defined population at a single point in time or time interval. Exposure and outcome are determined simultaneously.

Prospective, blind comparison to a gold standard: Studies that show the efficacy of a diagnostic test are also called prospective, blind comparison to a gold standard study. This is a controlled trial that looks at patients with varying degrees of an illness and administers both diagnostic tests — the test under investigation and the “gold standard” test — to all of the patients in the study group. The sensitivity and specificity of the new test are compared to that of the gold standard to determine potential usefulness.

Qualitative research: answers a wide variety of questions related to human responses to actual or potential health problems.The purpose of qualitative research is to describe, explore and explain the health-related phenomena being studied.

Retrospective cohort: follows the same direction of inquiry as a cohort study. Subjects begin with the presence or absence of an exposure or risk factor and are followed until the outcome of interest is observed. However, this study design uses information that has been collected in the past and kept in files or databases. Patients are identified for exposure or non-exposures and the data is followed forward to an effect or outcome of interest.