Evidence-Based Medicine Support for Medical Librarians

Minneapolis, USAMLA 2011

Emtree: Biomedical thesaurus, over 60k terms

Embase: Fully indexed: Over 7,700 journals, 1974-

MEDLINE: 2,500 journals unique to Embase, mapped to Embase

indexing, 1950- (including MEDLINE Classic)

Embase Classic:

Digitally scanned and

re-indexed, 1947-1973

AIP and In Process:

Indexing added, from 2009

Conference Abstracts:

Indexing added, from 2009

1947 1950 1974 2009

Embase Content Overview

Agenda

Emtree• Regular updates• Backposting

Indexing• NEW study type and

changes to existing ones

Workflow• Search Strategies

Emtree (from Jan 2011)

• 60K preferred terms (more than 29K drugs and chemicals)

• >260,000 synonyms (>172,000 drugs and chemicals)• 7,500 explosion terms (that define the hierarchical

structure)• 78 subheadings (64 drug and 14 disease subheadings)• 14 study types including Randomised Controlled Trial,

Systematic Reviews and the NEWLY introduced Diagnostic Test Accuracy Study

• Links to over 21,000 CAS registry numbers• All MeSH terms are included

Emtree 2011: More updates and comprehensive drug coverage

• All drug generic names described by FDA and EMEA• All International Non-Proprietary Names (INNs) described

by WHO from 2000• Extended coverage of Trade Names• Increased updates – 3 times per year

Emtree 2011: Backposting

Example: Cositecan replaced karenitecin in 2011

As karenitecin is mapped to cositecan results from all of Embase will be retrieved by using the new term, and the same results will be retrieved using cositec/de as karenitecin/de

Emtree 2010 Emtree 2011

Agenda

Emtree• Regular updates• Backposting

Indexing• NEW study type and

changes to existing ones

Workflow• Search Strategies

Study Type

From 2011: clinical trial (study type)

From 2011: clinical trial (topic) item

From 2011: Embase now differentiates by using separate terms, for example clinical trial limited to the study type AND clinical trial (topic) for items about clinical trials.

HumanEmtree 2010Emtree 2011

Previously: Limited to humans as experimental subjects.

From 2011: Includes items reporting (for example) the training of medical staff (i.e. even though they are not regarded as “experimental” subjects).

Clinical trial

Definition: Used for original reports of prospective clinical studies in which the (comparative) efficacy of one or more medical interventions in humans is evaluated; also used for prospective clinical veterinary trials in which the (comparative) efficacy of one or more medical interventions in animals is evaluated.

Previously: This check tag was limited to use in human studies.

From 2011: It now includes veterinary clinical trials.

Diagnostic Test Accuracy Study

Definition: Used for original studies or systematic reviews which assess how accurately a test distinguishes humans or animals having a condition or disease from those who do not. Typically, the test under evaluation is called the index test and its results are compared to the results of the best.

Previously: Did not exist

From 2011: This is a new check tag and unique to Embase

Agenda

Emtree• Regular updates• Backposting

Indexing• NEW study type and

changes to existing ones

Workflow• Search Strategies

Search Strategies

An expert user feature to support the specialist workflow with:

Saving; sharing; editing; rerunning and alerting

Enhanced:Privacy settingsTransparency of complex strategies

Increased flexibility when working with complex searches

Saving a Strategy from Results

Selecting the search identifies all related searches and allows the user to save as a strategy

Your Saved Searches

Searches are saved with all steps of the strategy clearly visible. The user, can update and rerun saved search strategies

Coming up….

Editing your saved searches

Saved searches can be edited, and changes previewed and accepted.When rerun, the result count will be updated

Sign up for Beta Testing

http://beta.embase.com

Please leave your email address today and we will send you a user name and password

Elsevier Training Desk: For your training needs

Agenda

Emtree• Regular updates• Backposting

Indexing• NEW study type and

changes to existing ones

Workflow• Search Strategies

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION