Bibliographic searches

The objective of the course is to train the student for making an efficient bibliographic search. First we?ll explain the importance of the clinical question, how to make it and the different parts that compound the question. Through this process we transform our need of information (about every aspect of the clinical practice: prevention, diagnosis, prognostic, therapy, aetiology...) in one structured clinical question. Once the clinical question is prepared we are ready to make a bibliographical search in order to find the articles that could answer it. We will explain the functioning of two Internet free databases: Trip and PubMed. Trip is, probably, the most useful secondary database to start a bibliographic search. It contains information that has passed a double filter of methodological quality and clinical relevance. The found articles don?t need a new critical appraisal. PubMed is an example of primary database. It contains a big amount of references of potentially relevant articles. But it is necessary for us to read the full text of the articles and make a critical appraisal of their validity and applicability. This is essentially a practical course.