1. Searching the Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews
ALYSSA GREEN, MLIS
UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY
JANUARY 5, 2012

2. Agenda
 Overview
 Goals
 Introduction to systematic reviews
 Systematic review sources
 Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
 Scenario
 PICO
 Basic search / Results
 Boolean logic / Special characters
 Advanced search / Results
 My Projects
 Conclusion and questions

3. Overview
 Scope of presentation
 Information literacy concept  Systematic reviews
 Information literacy skill  Searching online medical database
 International Medical Graduates (IMGs)
 Trained outside Canada and US
 Must complete additional training
 Offered at University of Calgary
 Difficulty with Canadian medical culture
 Evidence-based medicine
 Literature searching

4. Goals
1. Understand how systematic reviews can answer
clinical questions
2. Learn strategies for formulating answerable
questions
3. Learn how to use Boolean logic to create queries
4. Learn to use the basic and advanced search in the
Cochrane database of Systematic Reviews

5. Systematic Reviews
 Key component of evidence-based medicine (EBM)
 Help healthcare team members make decisions
 Studies that synthesize multiple primary studies
 Limit errors and bias by following guidelines
 Rules for conducting literature searches
 Clearly defined selection criteria

6. Value of Systematic Reviews
 Keep clinicians up-to-date
 Provide guidelines for best practices
 Are succinct, accurate summaries of results
 Show whether findings are consistent
 Save clinicians time and effort
 Improve standards and safety

7. Systematic Review Sources
 Medline/PubMed
 Limit searches to systematic reviews only
 Clinical Evidence
 Systematic review source from BMJ
 Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
 Cochrane reviews considered very thorough
 Access provided through OvidSP
 Other online journals and databases

8. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
 Contains all Cochrane Reviews and Protocols
 Very thorough and reliable
 Cochrane Reviews
 Focus on answering questions
 Can antibiotics help in alleviating the symptoms of a sore throat?
 Created by the Cochrane Review Group and peer-reviewed
 Focus on effects of interventions for prevention, treatment,
and rehabilitation
 Assess diagnostic tests for specific populations/conditions
 Updated regularly

9. Accessing the CDSR
 Multiple ways to access the CDSR
 Through Library home page
 Search “Cochrane” under Research Databases
 Through Health Sciences Library Page
 Under “other point of care tools”
 Subscription resource
 Library pays for access
 Access restricted to students
and faculty
 Can use from home or on
campus

10. Search Options

11. Scenario
 Use a systematic review to find answers
 Glenda, a 27 year old patient, is worried about
getting sick before her upcoming exams. She wants
to know if taking vitamin C will lower her chances of
getting a cold.

12. PICO
 Use PICO to formulate research questions
 Break scenarios into keywords and components
PICO Keyword
P = Patient orProblem Cold
I = Intervention, therapy, or Vitamin C
treatment
C = Comparison (ex. placebo, None
the gold standard)

13. Research Question
 PICO research question
 For the common cold (P), how does Vitamin C (I) compared
to no treatment (C) impact prevention (O)?
 Use a Cochrane Review to answer this question
 Further simplify the question
 Does vitamin C prevent colds?

14. Basic Search
 Useful for simple searches
 Can search a complete topic or question

15. Basic Search- Results
 Basic search browses
full-text of each
review
 Results ranked by
relevancy
 859 results
 Results don’t
include all terms
 Misses synonyms
 Advance search is
more precise

16. Formulating an Advanced Research Strategy
 Revisit PICO keywords
 Vitamin C
 Cold
 Prevention
 Brainstorm synonyms
 Vitamin C, ascorbic acid
 Cold, coryza
 Prevention, prophylaxis
 Variant spellings
 Tumor, tumour

17. BooleanOperators
 Used to combine words and phrases
 AND links search terms together
 vitamin C AND cold
 OR searches for one term or the other
 Prevention OR prophylaxis
 NOT excludes the term from search results
 Cold NOT influenza
 Brackets- ( ) links concepts together
 (cold OR coryza) AND (prevention OR prophylaxis)

18. Special Characters
 Truncation- * truncates words to find variations
 Prevent* picks up prevent, prevents, prevention, etc.
 Wildcards
 wom?n retrieves women, woman
 Quotations- “ ”
 searches phrases, i.e. “vitamin c”
 Next
 vitamin NEXT C
 Near
 cold NEAR prevention

19. Sample Search
 (“ascorbic acid” OR “vitamin c”) AND (prevent* OR
prophylaxis) AND (cold OR coryza)

20. Advanced Search
 Retrieves narrow, targeted results
 More flexible and precise than basic search

21. Advanced Search- Results
 12 results
 Boolean operators tell
database to return all
search terms
 Narrowed results while
broadened search terms
 Filter, sort, or view
different results

22. Sample Review

23. My Projects

24. Transferable Skills
 Can use Boolean operators with numerous resources
 OvidSP Databases
 OvidSP’s evidence-based medicine reviews
 Online evidence-based medicine resources
 General medical databases
 Non-medical databases
 University of Calgary Library Catalogue through Summon
Toolbar

25. Conclusion
 Systematic reviews are key to evidence-based medicine
 Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews is an important resource
 PICO helps formulate research questions
 Basic Search for simple queries
 Boolean Logic and special characters allow for detailed searching
 Advanced Search for refined searches
 “My Projects” saves reviews, search strings, and other information

26. References
1. The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. (2006). A Faculty
Development Program for Teachers of International Medical Graduates.
Ottawa, ON: Steinert, Y., & Walsh, A.
2. Sackett, D.L., Rosenberg, W.M.C., Gray, J.A.M., Haynes, R.B.,& Richardson,
W.S.(1996). Evidence based medicine:What it is and what it isn't.British Medical
Journal,312:(3), 71-72.
3. Cook, J.D., Mulrow, C.D, & Haynes, R.B., (1997). Systematic Reviews: Synthesis
of Best Evidence for Clinical Reviews. Annals of Internal Medicine, 126(5), 376-
380.
4. Mulrow, C.D. (1994). Systematic reviews: Rationale for systematic reviews.
British Medical Journal, 309.
5. Delany, A., Bagshaw, S., Ferland, A., Laupland, K., Manns, B., &Doig, C. (2007).
The quality of reports of critical care meta-analyses in the Cochrane Database of
Systematic Reviews: An independent appraisal. Critical Care Medicine, 35(2),
589-594.
6. Higgins, J.P.T., & Green, S. (eds.). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews
of Interventions. Retrieved from http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/. H
7. Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine: Toronto. (2012). Formulating Answerable
Clinical Questions (Page 2). Retrieved from
http://ktclearinghouse.ca/cebm/practise/formulate/tips2.