DrMBA_InformationSources

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Reliable Sources of Health and

Medical Information

Mutiara Budi Azhar, Dr., SU., MMedSc

Faculty of Medicine Sriwijaya University


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Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary

Sources

As you need information or conduct

research, you will consult different sources

of information.

You may be requested to find primary,

secondary, or tertiarysources.

Dr MBA Information Sources 2


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Primary Sources Primary sources are original materials.

have not been filtered through interpretation or

evaluation. are original materials on which other research is

based.

are usually the first formal appearance of

results in physical, print or electronic format.

present original thinking, report a discovery, or

share new information.



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Primary Sources. Cont

The definition of a primary source may

vary depending upon the discipline or

context.



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Primary Sources. Cont

Examples include:

Journal articles published in peer-reviewed publications;

Letters; Newspaper articles written at the time;

Original Documents (i.e. birth certificate, will, marriage license,

trial transcript);

Proceedings of Meetings, conferences and symposia; Records of organizations, government agencies (e.g. annual

report, treaty, constitution, government document);

Web site.



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Secondary Sources are less easily defined than primary sources.

are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources.

are not evidence, but rather commentary on anddiscussion of evidence.

However, what some define as a secondary source,

others define as a tertiary source. The definition of a secondary source may vary

depending upon the discipline or context.



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Secondary Sources. Cont

Examples include:

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias(also considered

tertiary); Journal articles(depending on the disciple can be

primary);

Magazine and newspaper articles (this distinction

varies by discipline);

Textbooks(also considered tertiary);

Web site(also considered primary)



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Tertiary Sources consist of information which is a distillation and

collection of primary and secondary sources.

Bibliographies (also considered secondary); Dictionaries and Encyclopedias(also considered

secondary);

Indexes, abstracts, bibliographies used to locate primary and

secondary sources; Manuals;

Textbooks(also be secondary).



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Use up-to-date evidence Look for reviews published in the last five

years or so, preferably in the last two or three

years.

The range of reviews you examine should be

wide enough to catch at least one full review

cycle, containing newer reviews written andpublished in the light of older ones and of

more-recent primary studies.



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Choosing sources Plos Medicineand other open access journals can be

useful as sources for images.

Some high-quality journals, such as JAMA, publish afew freely readable articles even though most are not

free.

A few high-quality journals, such asPLoS Medicine,

publish only freely readable sources.



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Choosing sources.Cont When searching for biomedical sources, it is

wise to skim-read everything available,

including abstracts of papers that are notfreely readable, and use that to get a feel for

what reliable sources are saying.



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Choosing sources.Cont

Biomedical journals

contains two major types of sources: primary

publications describe novel research for the first time

and review articles summarize and integrate a topic ofresearch into an overall view.



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Choosing sources.ContBiomedical journals

In medicine,

primary sources include clinical trials, which test new

treatments; secondary sources include meta-analyses, which

combine the results of many clinical trials in an attempt

to arrive at an overall view of how well a treatment

works. It is usually best to use reviews and meta-analyses where

possible, as these give a balanced and general perspective of a

topicand are usually easier to understand!



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Peer reviewed medical journals are a natural choice as

a source for up-to-date medical information.

not all the material is equally useful, and some, such asa letter from a non-expert, should be avoided.

Journal articles come in many types: original research,

reviews, case reports, editorials, andop-ed pieces,

advocacy pieces, speculation, book reviews, letters to

the editor and other forms of commentary or

correspondence.



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Choosing sources.ContBiomedical journals

There are at least 141 journals suitable for a small

medical library. Although this list is no longer

maintained, the listed journals are of high quality. The core general medical journals include theNew

England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, the

Journal of the American Medical Association

(JAMA), theAnnals of Internal Medicine, theBritish Medical Journal(BMJ), and the Canadian

Medical Association Journal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Journal_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Journal_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lancethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_the_American_Medical_Associationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_Internal_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Medical_Journalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Medical_Association_Journalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Medical_Association_Journalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Medical_Association_Journalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Medical_Association_Journalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Medical_Journalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_Internal_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_the_American_Medical_Associationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lancethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Journal_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Journal_of_Medicine


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Choosing sources.ContBooks

Medical textbooks published by academic

publishers are often excellent secondary

sources.

Ensure that the book is up to date, unless a

historical perspective is required.



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Major academic publishers (e.g., Elsevier,

Springer Verlag, Wolters Kluwer, and

Informa) publish specialized medical bookseries with good editorial oversight;

volumes in these series summarize the latest

research in narrow areas, usually in a moreextensive format than journal reviews.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevierhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springer_Verlaghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolters_Kluwerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolters_Kluwerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springer_Verlaghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier


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Specialized biomedical encyclopaedias

published by these established publishers are

often of good quality, but as a tertiary source,the information may be too terse for detailed

articles.



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Popular science and medicine books are useful

tertiary sources, but there are exceptions:

Most self-publishedbooks or books published byvanity pressesundergo no independent fact-

checking or peer review and, consequently, are not

reliable sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SELFPUBhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_presshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_presshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SELFPUBhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SELFPUBhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SELFPUB


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Medical and scientific organizations

Statements and information from reputable

major medical and scientific bodies may be

valuable encyclopedic sources. These bodies include the U.S. National Academies

(including the Institute of Medicineand theNational

Academy of Sciences), the BritishNational HealthService, the U.S.National Institutes of Healthand

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the

World Health Organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Academieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Academy_of_Scienceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Academy_of_Scienceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institutes_of_Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Preventionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Preventionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institutes_of_Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Academy_of_Scienceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Academy_of_Scienceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Academies


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Medical and scientific organizations. Cont

The reliability of these sources range from

formal scientific reports, which can be the

equal of the best reviews published in medicaljournals, through public guides and service

announcements, which have the advantage of

being freely readable, but are generally lessauthoritative than the underlying medical

literature.



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Popular press

generally not a reliable source for scientific and medical

information in articles.

generally lack the context to judge experimental results; tend to

overemphasize the certainty of any result, for instance,

presenting a new and experimental treatment as "the cure" for a

disease or an every-day substance as "the cause" of a disease.

may also publish articles about scientific results before those

results have been published in a peer reviewed journal or

reproduced by other experimenters.



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Other Sources Peer reviewed medical information resources

such as WebMD, UpToDate, Mayo Clinic, and

eMedicineare usually acceptable sources inthemselves, and can be useful guides about the

relevant medical literature and how much

weight to give different sources. However, as much as possible we should cite

the more established literature directly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebMDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UpToDatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayo_Clinichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMedicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMedicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayo_Clinichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UpToDatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebMD


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Searching for sources Search enginesare commonly used to find biomedical

sources.

PubMedis an excellent starting point for locating peerreviewed medical sources. It offers a free search

engine for accessing the MEDLINEdatabase of

biomedical research articles offered by theNational

Library of Medicineat the U.S. National Institutes ofHealth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_enginehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEDLINEhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Institutes_of_Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Institutes_of_Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Institutes_of_Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Institutes_of_Healthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Medicinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEDLINEhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine


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There are basic and advanced options for searching

PubMed; Clicking on the "Review" tab will help

narrow the search to review articles. The classification scheme includes about 70 types

of documents.

For medical information, the most useful types ofarticles are typically labeled "Guideline", "Meta-

analysis", "Practice guideline", or "Review".



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hank you very much for your kind attentionDr MBA Information Sources 27


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References1. University of Maryland Libraries (2001) Primary, Secondary,

and Tertiary Sources.

2. Primary, Secondary, & Tertiary Sources. James Cook

University.

3. Young JM, Solomon MJ (2009). How to critically appraise an

article.Nat Clin Pract Gastroenterol Hepatol6(2): 8291.

4. Greenhalgh T (1997). "How to read a paper: Papers that

summarize other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analyses)".BMJ315(7109): 6725.

5. http://www.midrealm.org/starleafgate/Documents/Primary.pdf

http://www.midrealm.org/starleafgate/Documents/Primary.pdfhttp://www.midrealm.org/starleafgate/Documents/Primary.pdf