Comparing patient characteristics, type of intervention, control, and outcome (PICO) queries with unguided searching: a randomized controlled crossover trial.

Background: Translating a question into a query using patient characteristics, type of intervention, control, and outcome (PICO) should help answer therapeutic questions in PubMed searches. The authors performed a randomized crossover trial to determine whether the PICO format was useful for quick searches of PubMed.

Methods: Twenty-two residents and specialists working at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre were trained in formulating PICO queries and then presented with a randomized set of questions derived from Cochrane reviews.

Evaluation of PubMed filters used for evidence-based searching: validation using relative recall.

Objectives: The research sought to determine the value of PubMed filters and combinations of filters in literature selected for systematic reviews on therapy-related clinical questions.

Methods: References to 35,281 included and 48,514 excluded articles were extracted from 2,629 reviews published prior to January 2008 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and sent to PubMed with and without filters. Sensitivity, specificity, and precision were calculated from the percentages of unfiltered and filtered references retrieved for each review and averaged over all reviews.

Development of carcinoid tumour in hormonally treated adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

We present the case of an 81-yr-old man with a prostatic adenocarcinoma and a metastatic carcinoid. Simultaneous occurrence of hormonally treated adenocarcinoma of the prostate and a carcinoid has been described before. The pathogenesis of this coincidence is largely unclear; however, androgen deprivation therapy might play a key role in neuroendocrine differentiation of adenocarcinoma cells.

Answers to questions posed during daily patient care are more likely to be answered by UpToDate than PubMed.

Background: UpToDate and PubMed are popular sources for medical information. Data regarding the efficiency of PubMed and UpToDate in daily medical care are lacking.

Objective: The purpose of this observational study was to describe the percentage of answers retrieved by these information sources, comparing search results with regard to different medical topics and the time spent searching for an answer.

Analysis of queries sent to PubMed at the point of care: observation of search behaviour in a medical teaching hospital.

Background: The use of PubMed to answer daily medical care questions is limited because it is challenging to retrieve a small set of relevant articles and time is restricted. Knowing what aspects of queries are likely to retrieve relevant articles can increase the effectiveness of PubMed searches. The objectives of our study were to identify queries that are likely to retrieve relevant articles by relating PubMed search techniques and tools to the number of articles retrieved and the selection of articles for further reading.