Medical Databases on the Internet: Part 1

When looking for background information about a specific disease, or evidence to support a particular clinical intervention, most clinicians undertake some form of literature searchl ,2. Typically this involves a visit to the nearest medical library where you can either struggle through the bound volumes of Index Medicus or, more likely, use the library's CD-ROM databases. Either method depends upon the library being accessible (open), the CD-ROM workstations being available, and you having the time to visit. If these conditions are not met, or if you would prefer to search a range of medical databases from the comfort of your own workstation, at a time that is convenient to yourself, you can access these databases, free of charge, via the Internet. In part 1 of this two-part article, I will look at the three most popular medical databases namely, MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and EMBASE. Part 2 will focus on other useful bibliographic databases including PsychINFO, BIOETHICSLINE and CancerLit.