1. Information Retrieval for Evidence-based Practice
Fall 2001
Suzanne Bakken, RN, DNSc, FAAN
School of Nursing & Department of Medical Informatics
Columbia University

2. Definition
Information retrieval (IR) is the science and practice of identification and efficient use of recorded media

3. Information Retrieval and Analysis
Indexing (using standardized terminology and other methods)
Query formulation
Retrieval
Evaluation and refinement

4. Relevance
Recall - ratio of number of documents retrieved and relevant to number of relevant documents in database (sensitivity)
Precision - ratio of relevant documents retrieved to total number of documents retrieved (positive predictive value)

5. User-defined Relevance
Information content of document
Provision of references to other sources of information
Subjective qualities
Situational aspects - clinical vs. student

6. Types of Clinical Decisions
Diagnostic reasoning - differential diagnosis
Decisions related to actions - involve risk: cost, time, morbidity, mortality, discomfort
Diagnostic tests - treatment-threshold
Screening
Management (including prevention) - medications, surgery, education, watchful waiting

7. General Search Strategy for EBP Information Retrieval
Clinical problem
Define searchable question
Select most likely resource
Design search strategy
Summarize the evidence yield Poor
Apply the evidence
Select another resource

8. General Search Strategy for EBP Information Retrieval
Clinical problem
Define searchable question
Select most likely resource
Design search strategy
Summarize the evidence yield Poor
Apply the evidence
Select another resource

9. Elements of Well-built Clinical Questions
Patient or problem being addressed
“Intervention” (natural or therapeutic) being considered
Comparison intervention being considered, where relevant
Outcome of interest