Searching EMBASE Helen Rowlandson Principal Pharmacist Medicines Information
Searching EMBASE Helen Rowlandson Principal Pharmacist Medicines Information London Medicines Information Service (Northwick Park) London
Session aims l To understand the concepts of a basic search strategy in Embase l To describe the EMTREE thesaurus in detail so that you will be able to apply EMTREE to use Embase efficiently l To carry out advanced Embase searches
Plan l What is Embase? l Medline v Embase l EMTREE l Dialog Software – searching tools l Worked Examples
Whatisis. EMBASE? l Major biomedical & pharmaceutical database l European focus l 5, 000 journals, 70 countries l Subject coverage focuses on human medicine – also includes related disciplines e. g health economics, hospital management
EMBASE <>EMBASE Medline vs l l l MEDLINE USA coverage 1950 onwards Wide medical coverage In process Me. SH indexing l l l EMBASE European coverage 1974 onwards Drug/pharmacology focus Updated faster EMTREE indexing 30% overlap between the Medline and Embase
Searching EMBASE l Controlled vocabulary = EMTREE l Uses natural language l US spellings rather than British l INNs used where possible l Acronyms & abbreviations mostly avoided l Tree Structure – Hierarchy l Indexing: Terms added/Drug names
Dialog Software Open Internet and type: http: //www. datastarweb. com/NHS/ l l Click “Athens users click here” l Right click & then click on “create a shortcut” l Enter Athens password EMBASE
Dialog Software l Use advanced search (avoid ‘easy search’) l Embase 1974 to date or 1996 to date l 3 options to search for terms: – Thesaurus mapping – Browse headings – Enter a term EMBASE
Explode/Focus l Explode – Includes everything below in the tree structure l Focus (Major) – Only includes articles where the Me. SH heading (descriptor) is the main focus of the article
Subheadings l Many more subheading options for drugs compared with Medline e. g. diclofenac EMBASE
Trade names l Drug / device trade names can be searched l Articles are indexed with trade names when relevant l Useful when searching for comparative info e. g. Slophyllin, Uniphyllin
CAS numbers l No real need to do this in EMBASE l However it is still possible to do – see drop down menu l Most medicines have EMTREE terms – even recently licensed ones
Limits l Limit searches in similar way to Medline l Two ways of limiting l Differences compared to Medline
Publication types l Publication types have their own facet / tree top of EMTREE terms that are searchable l Facet J: types of article or study l Build up your search and combine in the usual way (using BOOLEAN) with other search terms
Worked example 1 l Are there any papers about SSRIs or SNRIs being used in the treatment of Huntington disease?
Worked example 2 l Are there any articles which discuss using high dose vitamin supplementation to treat autistic disorders ? EMBASE
Any questions?
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