New JAMA Users Guide

JMLA Case Studies in Health Sciences Librarianship brings to our attention a new series of Users’ Guide articles:  How to use an article about genetic association. The first article provides background information; the second discusses judging the validity of a study; and the third discusses applying results to the care of patients.
Attia J, Ioannidis JP, [...]

Unanswered Questions, part 2

The second research article is part of series published by Ely et al.:
Ely JW; Osheroff JA; Maviglia SM; Rosenbaum ME: Patient-care questions that physicians are unable to answer. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2007 Jul-Aug;14(4):407-14. Epub 2007 Apr 25 . PMID 17460122
This is a follow-up to a previous study in which the investigators had observed [...]

Search challenges

Searching the medical literature … it’s what we do.    These days, much of my searching is either “quick & dirty” for people who just want an article or two right now, or really complex if I’m working with someone who reports trying unsuccessfully to pin down an answer.
JMLA Case Studies in Health Sciences Librarianship has [...]

Misquoting the literature

An interesting study in the Journal of Hand Surgery examines whether authors citing a 1986 study have accurately represented the findings reported in this classic article. This points up the importance of reviewing original studies, when practicing evidence-based medicine, rather than relying on later articles to accurately interpret them.
From the abstract:
PURPOSE: Novel clinical studies [...]

Doctor talks to doctors about staying current

Need to talk to your medical staff about the information resources you provide? Take a look at this: 
Dr. Eugene Lin presented a paper at the Indiana Chapter meeting of the American College of Physicians in 2005 titled Staying Current. His slides may be viewed free at http://www.acponline.org/about_acp/chapters/in/slides_current.pdf
Dr. Lin describes the difficulties in finding the right information resources. He compares [...]

Doctors reflecting on medical knowledge

Two interesting items this week about information access and medical education:
Dr. Joshua Schwimmer writes about Google Books in the Tech Medicine blog at Healthline. He relates an experience using Google Books to find quick access to a page on necrotizing fasciitis while examining a patient with medical students and residents in the emergency room: [...]