Evidence-based Medicine Search : a customizable federated search engine

This paper reports on the development of a tool by the Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) for searching clinical evidence that can be customized for different user groups. The AHSL provides services to the University of Arizona's (UA's) health sciences programs and to the University Me...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Medical Library Association 2008-04, Vol.96 (2), p.108-113
Main Authors: BRACKE, Paul J, HOWSE, David K, KEIM, Samuel M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abstracting and Indexing as Topic - methods
Arizona
Benchmarking
Bibliometrics
Collections and collecting
Decision making
Decision Making, Computer-Assisted
Documentation institutions
Emergency medical care
Evaluation
Evidence based medicine
Exact sciences and technology
Humans
Information and communication sciences
Information retrieval systems
Information retrieval systems. Information and document management system
Information science. Documentation
Information Storage and Retrieval - methods
Internet/Web search services
Libraries. Documentation centres
Libraries. Virtual and electronic libraries. Media centers. Documentation centers
Medical libraries
Online health care information services
Program Development
Program Evaluation
Research and special libraries
Sciences and techniques of general use
Search engines
Services
Terminology as Topic
United States
Vocabulary, Controlled
Web sites
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Summary:This paper reports on the development of a tool by the Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) for searching clinical evidence that can be customized for different user groups. The AHSL provides services to the University of Arizona's (UA's) health sciences programs and to the University Medical Center. Librarians at AHSL collaborated with UA College of Medicine faculty to create an innovative search engine, Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) Search, that provides users with a simple search interface to EBM resources and presents results organized according to an evidence pyramid. EBM Search was developed with a web-based configuration component that allows the tool to be customized for different specialties. Informal and anecdotal feedback from physicians indicates that EBM Search is a useful tool with potential in teaching evidence-based decision making. While formal evaluation is still being planned, a tool such as EBM Search, which can be configured for specific user populations, may help lower barriers to information resources in an academic health sciences center.
ISSN:1536-5050
1558-9439
DOI:10.3163/1536-5050.96.2.108