Bmj Clical Evidence Guide
User Guide
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Finding evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
By section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
By listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
By searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Navigating around a review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Reading the full text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Drug Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
EBM Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Articles and research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
News and alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
RSS updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Email alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Drug safety alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Clinical Evidence on the move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Contact Clinical Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
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Introduction
Clinical Evidence is the international source of the best available
evidence for effective healthcare. We support the clinical decision
making of hundreds of thousands of clinicians around the world by
providing access to the latest medical evidence, continually
updated, to help make treatment decisions.
Our panel of experts and specialist writers rigorously check and
then summarise the most relevant evidence in a quick and easy to
find format. Our reviews concentrate on summarising the evidence
in relation to common clinical problems, to ensure that we provide
solutions that are relevant to your patients.
The development and improvement of Clinical Evidence
is a constant process. Based on extensive customer feedback we
have continued to develop Clinical Evidence so that it remains at
Helping you make better treatment
the forefront of evidence based resources for clinical decisions.
decisions for your patients
Below are just some of the key features that you will discover:
• Systematic reviews of over 3300 interventions in the context of
over 670 clinical situations
• Timely access to all the latest and most relevant research findings
• Simple user interface to minimise the number of clicks required
to reach information
• GRADE scores ranking the quality of the evidence presented
• Monthly updates and new topics
• PDA edition to provide answers on the move
• Patient information leaflets so you can provide your patients with
plain-English information on their condition
• All of this is within a single, evidence based resource
This user guide introduces you to the essential features of Clinical
Evidence, and will help you get the most out of them.
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Finding evidence
There are three ways to find the evidence you need:
• Browse by section
• Browse the full review list
• Or use the search tool
FINDING BY SECTION
Click on the ‘Sections’ heading and an alphabetical pop-up list
of sections will appear. When you choose a section a new
window appears showing the systematic reviews available.
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Finding evidence
FINDING BY LISTING
Click on the ‘Full review list’ heading and an alphabetical pop-up
list of reviews will appear. By clicking on the alphabet bar at the
top of this window you can easily access the available evidence.
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Finding evidence
FINDING BY SEARCHING
This facility is particularly valuable when searching for a
treatment or condition that may appear in several different
reviews e.g. Corticosteroids.
Results are returned in listings that show a snippet of text with
your search term highlighted so you can gauge the context.
Results are ranked by relevance with a clear pathway that
identifies where the results are located.
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Navigating around a review
Once you have located the review that interests you,
Clinical Evidence presents the information with a tabbed sub-
menu. This evidence has been selected by systematic and
rigorous searching to answer clinical questions while focusing
on outcomes that matter most to patients and clinicians. Each
treatment or intervention is then categorised according to its
benefits and harms.
The core evidence is supplemented by links, references, and
additional information.
INTERVENTIONS
A summary of interventions ranked by their effectiveness
KEY POINTS
A one page summary of the review
ABOUT THIS CONDITION
The tabbed sub-menu
Background information about the condition
UPDATES
Material published since the review search date
GUIDELINES
Links to major guidelines relevant to the review
PRINT OPTIONS
Print the page or download a multi-page review in PDF format
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Reading the full text
Interventions for each condition are summarised in a table.
They are categorised by effectiveness, with icons for easy
reference (see below).
ICONS
Characterise the benefits/harms associated with
an intervention
DETAIL
Click the description to access a summary of the intervention,
the benefits and harms, and a commentary
KEY TO ICONS
Beneficial
Likely to be beneficial
Trade-off between benefits and harms
Unknown effectiveness
Unlikely to be beneficial
Likely to be ineffective or harmful
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Additional resources
Clinical Evidence offers a variety of other resources to help
keep you up-to-date and to help you practise evidence based
medicine (EBM).
EBM TOOLS
These tools explain some of the statistical and clinical terms
used in Clinical Evidence and introduces the concept of
assessing and measuring risk when making clinical decisions
EBM LINKS
Carefully selected links to other evidence based materials,
publications and organisations
DRUG INFORMATION
Links to international sources of high-quality drug information
EBM TRAINING
Free training modules on statistics and diagnostic tests
ARTICLES AND RESEARCH
Reports highlighting Clinical Evidence and how it has affected
and supported clinical practices
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News and alerts
Clinical Evidence helps you monitor what is happening in the
sphere of evidence based medicine, and beyond, with a variety of
tools that alert you to new content, findings and news.
RSS UPDATES
Subscribe to our RSS feeds and be notified of feeds as they occur
EMAIL ALERTS
Receive notification when new reviews or updates are added
to Clinical Evidence
DRUG SAFETY ALERTS
The latest findings on drug safety feature prominently on the
home page
NEWS
The latest EBM related news
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Clinical Evidence: on the move
Health professionals need to find quick answers to clinical
questions wherever they are. It’s not always possible to check
the evidence on a computer, so Clinical Evidence is also
available in two portable, complementary formats.
Clinical Evidence Handbook
Published in June and December
Containing summary and background information for each
topic and recently enhanced to be more efficient at the point of
care, this handbook is an essential reference tool for healthcare
professionals when they are away from their computer.
The Clinical Evidence Handbook is also available for purchase in
other languages including: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese
and Spanish.
Clinical Evidence on PDAs
The key information from Clinical Evidence online can now also
be delivered to handhelds (Personal Digital Assistants). Access to
the latest evidence – wherever it’s needed – enables healthcare
professionals to quickly make informed and effective treatment
decisions for their patients.
clinicalevidence.bmj.com
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Contact Clinical Evidence
For more information, please contact:
BMJ Group, Sales department, BMA House,
Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9JR, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 207 383 6693
Fax: +44 (0) 207 383 6661
Email: consortiasales@bmjgroup.com
US: +1 800 348 6473
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