Polish up on medical guidelines and the latest clinical research topics here. Help transform the doctor-patient relationship today!
You know exactly what information you need and don’t have a lot of time for aimless google searches right now. Your time management is on par, and you need a concise listing of tailored resources for professionals. If this sounds familiar, you’ve come to the right place. Below you will find a table that allows direct access to resources.
But, if you have a little more time or need to understand the differences in available resources, refer to the tables and explanations below. Each resource link contains a short explanation about the service type and fees involved (e.g., open access or fee-based service).
Free Databases and Search Engines
- CGP: the Catalog of United States Government Publications (CGP) on health topics and statistics
- Database catalog includes congressional publications (US House and Senate reports;1976 to present), historic shelf-list (card catalog;1800s to 1992), FDLP web archive (point-in-time captures of federal websites), Gov eBooks and serials (US government journals, annuals, and periodicals;1976 to present)
- MetaLib: A database service by the CGP for historic and current US government publications
- Search results compiled into a table view by the source of publication
- Option to locate a nearby US Federal Depository Library
- Articles and books may be open access or require a fee to view
- Cochrane: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) is a database of systematic reviews, protocols, editorials, and supplements; owned by Cochrane and published by Wiley
- CENTRAL: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) is a database of highly concentrated source reports for controlled clinical trials conducted globally (some are unpublished)
- Records are a subset of the following databases: PubMed, Embase (Elsevier), CINAHL (EBSCO), ClinicalTrials.gov, and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trial Registry Platform
- Articles may be open access or require a fee to view
- Digital Commons Network: The Digital Commons Network has a Medicine and Health Sciences Commons
- The database contains open access articles on various clinical topics
- Google Scholar: an AI search engine with a wide range of articles and online books
- Some publications may not be reviewed
- Articles may be open access or require a fee to view
- MedlinePlus: Searchable health information website including the National Library of Medicine (NLM), US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other US federal agencies
- Contains carefully selected, reliable information on health topics, medical tests (reviewed every 3 years), nutrition, genetics, A.D.A.M Medical Encyclopedia, drugs & supplements
- PubMed: Database by the US National Library of Congress
- Biomedical and scientific articles from:
- MEDLINE: a project that oversees article selection for the National Library of Medicine (NLM) used in the database, PubMed
- PubMed Central (PMC): managed by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information group (NCBI) and includes archived articles from both the National Institute of Health (NIH) and NLM
- Search records are indexed with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
- Articles and books may be open access or require a fee to view
- Biomedical and scientific articles from:
- SEMANTIC SCHOLAR: an AI search engine for scientific publications
- Uses an algorithm to accelerate result output and help overcome information overload
- Quickly identify open access articles by looking for the “PDF” symbol below the search results
- Articles and books may be open access or require a fee to view
- ScienceDirect: free database by Elsevier containing a broad range of scientific, peer-reviewed articles and online books
- Articles and books may be open access or require a fee to view
- Trip: Turning Research Into Practice (TRIP) database locates clinical articles and eBooks
- Based on the Trip Evidence Pyramid that locates clinical guidelines, regulatory guidance, and evidence behind clinical decisions
- Trip allows the users to sort search results by the type of evidence – systemic reviews, guidelines, regulatory guidance, clinical Q&A, etc.
- Trip is color-coded (green, yellow, red) to identify the strength in quality of article sources in supporting evidence-based practice
Fee-Based Services
- Clarivate: Clarivate offers solutions for scientific and clinical research organizations focused on academic grant approval, publication activities, and research trending
- Web of Science: a publisher-independent, global citation database
- Comprehensive listing of a variety of publication types from academic, corporate, and government institutions
- Web of Science: a publisher-independent, global citation database
- EBSCO: The Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO) essential database searches various publications but is limited by the publisher (beware of ads)
- CINAHL: fee-based database service for open access, scientific journals; map keywords and subjects using MeSH
- EBSCO Health Care: fee-based membership services that accurately summarize evidence-based clinical content, including laboratory testing for nurses and allied health professionals
- EBSCO Clinical: A host of health care solutions that require a fee to access
- DynaMed and DynaMed Decisions: fee-based membership services that accurately summarize evidence-based clinical content for doctors to use in practice
- Current scientific articles and clinical practice guidelines incorporated into clear, concise recommendations for physicians (for a list of guidelines monitored: Guideline Orgs)
- DynaMed and DynaMed Decisions: fee-based membership services that accurately summarize evidence-based clinical content for doctors to use in practice
- ELSEVIER: provides various fee-based, integrated clinical solutions to health care organizations and physicians
- EMBASE: fee-based biomedical research database by Elsevier
- SCOPUS: fee-based abstract and citation database by Elsevier
- ClinicalKey: fee-based service providing physicians with evidence-based information from reference materials
- ClinicalKey provides physicians and other health care professionals concise medical information to stay abreast of clinical knowledge, confirm diagnoses and treatment options while advancing critical thinking skills
- Wolters Kluwer Health: A global solutions company providing various health-related, fee-based solutions to medical organizations and physicians
- UpToDate: fee-based service providing evidence-based and clinical guidance summaries
- UpToDate provides drug summaries, laboratory testing guides, links to clinical guidelines, disease-based summaries, and more that support physicians when decisions for patients
- Databases@Ovid: Various fee-based, proprietary databases providing search specific results for clinical research institutions, physicians, and other healthcare organizations
- Fees provide precision mapping for search terms across various databases, journals, and online books while eliminating duplicate articles and seamlessly linking full-text publications into the search results
- Lexicomp: fee-based service providing physicians with specific drug treatment information
- UpToDate: fee-based service providing evidence-based and clinical guidance summaries
Free Pharmaceutical Information
- DailyMed: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug and biological product information database
- Labeling information for prescription and non-prescription drugs, some medical devices, and medical gases
- Information for humans and animals
- FDA Drug Approval Database: links to the US FDA drug approvals and drug databases webpage
- Search for drugs by acronyms or abbreviations
- Medication guides search
- The Orange Book listings: biological product listings approved but listed as “drugs” under section 505 of the FD&C Act
- The Purple Book listings: all US FDA-licensed or approved biological products
- The US FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) Public Dashboard
- European Medicines Agency: Search the database for medication summaries, packaging and use information, labeling, and support documentation (including investigation plans, risk management plans, assessment reports, etc.)
- The NHS (National Health Service) medication database from the United Kingdom: drug facts and labeling information
Clinical Practice Guidelines
Clinical practice guidelines developed by various expert panel groups can be difficult to search and find. These guidelines are often issued by third-party organizations (non-governmental organizations) and may require fees to access the full-text articles. The guidelines cover a variety of diagnostic practices, diseases, and treatment modalities. These statements give recommendations to physicians and assist with patient decisions regarding appropriate health care diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.
- The NCCIH (National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health) webpage attempts to link practitioners to various websites that house these guidelines.
- The European Medicines Agency (EMA) maintains a page of various scientific guidelines for diseases from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP).
- The NICE (National Institute for Health Care Excellence) in the UK has a searchable database of clinical practice guidelines.
- The GIN (Guidelines International Network) searchable database contains international guidelines including the US and Canada.
- If you are looking for guidelines from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Standards, check out this ECRI (Emergency Care research Institute) website which may also require fees to view full-text articles.
