SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION ON OUTCOMES - DO YOU NEED TO BE COMPREHENSIVE

The concepts of evidence-based practice and clinical effectiveness are reliant on up to date, accurate, high quality, and relevant informati on. Although this information can be obtained from a range of sources, computerised databases such as MEDLINE offer a fast, effective means of bringing up to date information to clinicians, as well as health se rvice and information professionals. Common problems when searching fo r information from databases include missing important relevant papers or retrieving too much information. Effective search strategies are t herefore necessary to retrieve a manageable amount of relevant informa tion. This paper presents a range of strategies which can be used to l ocate information on MEDLINE efficiently and effectively.