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Systematically Searching the Medical Literature

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Online: Link emailed to participants

Reviews of the medical literature need to be rigorous to ensure that all relevant research is found and that the resulting recommendations are evidence-based. This requires a more structured and systematic form of search development than we use in many other contexts. In this session, we will review the steps required to build a systematic search along with some tips and tricks to make this process more effective. This workshop is not database specific but will instead focus on guidelines and principles that can be applied to searches in many medical databases, such as PubMed, CINAHL or PsycINFO. 

By the end of the workshop, you'll be able to: 

  • Define systematic searching in a health context 
  • Plan a search using PICO(T) or similar 
  • Incorporate subject headings and keywords in your search 
  • Describe the process for translating a search to a different database 
  • Create a validation set to test your search 

Part of the ASPIRE series of workshops for graduate students. 

Location: online webinar via Zoom 

Instructor: Fiona Inglis  

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