Transcript Document

Searching EMBASE
Helen Rowlandson
Principal Pharmacist Medicines Information
London Medicines Information Service
(Northwick Park) London
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
 Dialog Software – searching tools
 Worked Examples
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What
WhatisisEMBASE?
EMBASE?
Major biomedical & pharmaceutical
database
 European focus
 5,000 journals, 70 countries
 Subject coverage focuses on human
medicine
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– also includes related disciplines e.g health
economics, hospital management
EMBASE
<>EMBASE
Medline
Medline vs
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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 mostly avoided
 Tree Structure – Hierarchy
 Indexing: Terms added/Drug names
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Dialog Software
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Open Internet and type:
http://www.datastarweb.com/NHS/
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Click “Athens users click here”
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Right click & then click on “create a shortcut”
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Enter Athens password
EMBASE
Dialog Software
Use advanced search (avoid ‘easy
search’)
 Embase 1974 to date or 1996 to date
 3 options to search for terms:
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– Thesaurus mapping
– Browse headings
– Enter a term
EMBASE
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
EMBASE
Trade names
Drug / device trade names can be
searched
 Articles are indexed with trade names
when relevant
 Useful when searching for comparative
info
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e.g. Slophyllin, Uniphyllin
CAS numbers
No real need to do this in EMBASE
 However it is still possible to do – see
drop down menu
 Most medicines have EMTREE terms –
even recently licensed ones
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Limits
Limit searches in similar way to Medline
 Two ways of limiting
 Differences compared to 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 SSRIs or
SNRIs being used in the treatment of
Huntington disease?
Worked example 2
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Are there any articles which discuss
using high dose vitamin
supplementation to treat autistic
disorders ?
EMBASE
Any questions?