Keeping Current Chicago Urban Health Outreach Project Keeping Current in Health Science Information Use the buttons below to navigate. Start by clicking the right arrow to advance to the next page.

Keeping Current 2 Welcome! Tutorial Contents  Keeping up with NLM databases  Other important health science sites  Internet search engines  CUHOP resources available beyond the project completion

Keeping Current 3 Keeping up with NLM Naturally, the National Library of Medicine updates all of its databases as often as necessary. PubMed adds approximately 2700 citations every day, and its features are always evolving. ClinicalTrials.gov and MEDLINEplus are also updated on a daily basis. Let’s go over a few pointers on how to keep current with these vital databases.

Keeping Current 4 Tutorial - This NLM-designed tutorial is updated whenever necessary, and will give you the most thorough refresher on PubMed you’ll ever need New/Noteworthy - Contains various updates and changes to the features of PubMed. These are sporadic and often technical, but you may wish to look them over on occasion.

Keeping Current 5 Overview - This page will give you the lowdown on what PubMed is and does, its governance, selection process, and lots of other details. Great for a refresher. Help/FAQ - Contains all the information contained in the Tutorial, arranged into a simple text format with a clear table of contents. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) addresses the most common questions about using PubMed.

Keeping Current 6 About - Provides a brief introduction to this site Site Map - Lays out a virtual table of contents of the site, allowing you to grasp the content in one visual layout FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions. Check here first if you have a question about how MEDLINEplus works.

Keeping Current 7 Resources - Contains lots of FAQ-style information regarding clinical trials in general - very helpful for lay users of the database and those interested in enrolling in trials. Help - A table of contents of just about all possible questions you could have about the database and how to use it What’s New - Essentially, a list of press releases of new studies acively recruiting patients.

Keeping Current 8 Beyond NLM Of course, NLM tools are not the only way to keep up with the health science literature, and with what’s good on the web. Let’s look at a handful of other resources that work as great starting points.

Keeping Current 9 Healthweb is maintained by a consortium of health science librarians at Big Ten Universities and UIC. It provides up-to- date links to quality information by subject. It’s more broad in scope than MEDLINEplus, and not limited to consumer health-related materials. It’s a great starting point for any web search in the health sciences.

Keeping Current 10 Similar in approach and scope to Healthweb, The New York Online Access to Health (NOAH) sometimes surpasses Healthweb in the breadth of resources on a given topic,and contains Spanish materials. Though based in New York, most of the information is not state specific and still highly useful.

Keeping Current 11 The National Guidelines Clearinghouse is a storehouse of clinical evidence-based guidelines submitted from clinics across the nation. It can be very useful in finding a clinical guideline when time is short, but it is best used as a storehouse of examples to guide the formation of your own guidelines.

Keeping Current 12 A year ago I gave you some tips on Search Engines. Searching technology is always developing, and a year from now another engine will likely replace Google at the top of the heap. Also, some engines have begun questionable practices, such as selling the top spot on their lists to the highest bidder. It’s wise to periodically check a site like Search Engine Watch, which keeps up on the latest developments. Reviews of Search Engines

Keeping Current 13 We’ll Be Around The CUHOP people will still be accessible for at least a year after the end of the project for consultation and advice. Keep the CUHOP page bookmarked and return to it whenever you need our help.

Keeping Current 14 Good Luck!  Please feel free to any questions or comments to Martin Brennan, CUHOP Outreach Coordinator, by clicking here.clicking here  Return to the CUHOP Instruction CenterReturn to the CUHOP Instruction Center  Return to CUHOP main pageReturn to CUHOP main page  Go to ClinicalTrials.govGo to ClinicalTrials.gov  Go to PubMedGo to PubMed  Go to MEDLINEplusGo to MEDLINEplus Tutorial designed August 2003 by Martin BrennanMartin Brennan NLM website content reproduced by permission