Transcript Document

Searching EMBASE
Alex Denby
Regional MI Manager
London Medicines Information Service
(Northwick Park Hospital)
Session aims
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To understand the concepts of a basic
search strategy in Embase
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To describe the EMTREE thesaurus in
detail so that you will be able to apply
EMTREE to use Embase efficiently
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To carry out advanced Embase searches
Plan
What is Embase?
 Medline v Embase
 EMTREE
 NLH Software – searching tools
 Worked Examples
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What is EMBASE?
Major biomedical & pharmaceutical
database
 European focus
 >3,500 journals, 70 countries
 Subject coverage focuses on human
medicine
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 Includes
drug research, pharmacology,
pharmaceutics, health policy and
management, public health
EMBASE vs. Medline
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MEDLINE
USA coverage
1950 onwards
Wide medical
coverage
In process
MeSH indexing
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EMBASE
European coverage
1974 onwards
Drug/pharmacology
focus
Updated faster
EMTREE indexing
30% overlap between the Medline and Embase
Searching EMBASE
Controlled vocabulary = EMTREE
 Uses natural language
 US spellings rather than British
 INNs used where possible
 Acronyms & abbreviations can be used
 Tree Structure – Hierarchy
 Indexing: Terms added/Drug names
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NLH Software
Open Internet and type:
http://www.library.nhs.uk/Default.aspx
 Click “Login now” (LHS of screen)
 Right click & then click on “create a shortcut”
 Enter Athens password
 Click on “Healthcare Database Advanced
Search” and select Embase.
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NLH Software
Embase 1974 to date
 2 options to search for terms:
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 Thesaurus
mapping
 Browse headings
Explode/Focus
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Explode
 Includes
everything below in the tree
structure
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Focus (Major)
 Only
includes articles where the MeSH
heading (descriptor) is the main focus of
the article
Subheadings
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Many more subheading options for
drugs compared with Medline
e.g. diclofenac
CAS numbers
No real need to use them in EMBASE
 Most medicines have EMTREE terms –
even recently licensed ones
 If a drug hasn’t got an EMTREE term
assigned – use free text
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Limits
Limit searches in similar way to Medline
 Differences compared with Medline
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Publication types
Publication types have their own facet
/ tree top of EMTREE terms that are
searchable
 Facet J: types of article or study
 Build up your search and combine in
the usual way (using BOOLEAN) with
other search terms
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Worked example 1
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Are there any papers about UK SSRIs
or SNRIs being used in the treatment
of Huntington disease?
Searches can be saved and easily retrieved again.
Worked example 2
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Are there any articles which discuss
using high dose vitamin
supplementation to treat autism ?
Any questions?