help button home button JAMIA Bigger figures
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
First published June 23, 2006 as JAMIA PrePrint; doi:10.1197/jamia.M2084
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 2006;13(5):485-487
© 2006 American Medical Informatics Association

A more recent version of this article appeared on September 1, 2006
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
M2084v1
13/5/485    most recent
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Corrao, S.
Right arrow Articles by Licata, G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Corrao, S.
Right arrow Articles by Licata, G.

Submitted on February 16, 2006
Accepted on April 23, 2006

Improving efficacy of PubMed Clinical Queries for retrieving scientifically strong studies on treatment

Salvatore Corrao MD1*, Daniela Colomba MD1, Sabrina Arnone MD2, Christiano Argano MD, PhD1, Tiziana Di Chiara MD1, Rosario Scaglione MD1, and Giuseppe Licata MD1

Affiliation of the authors: 1 Biomedical Department of Internal Medicine, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy ; 2 Clinical Methodology, Epidemiology and Statistics Unit, National Relevance Hospital Trust Civico e Benfratelli, Palermo, Italy

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

We evaluated the retrieval power of PubMed Clinical Queries, narrow search string, about therapy in comparison with a modified search string to avoid possible retrieval bias. PubMed search strategy was compared to a slight modified string that includes the Britannic English term randomised. We tested the two strings joined onto each of four terms concerning topics of broad interest: hypertension, hepatitis, diabetes, and heart failure. In particular, precision was computed for not-indexed citations. The added word randomised improved total citation retrieval in any case. Total retrieval gain for not-indexed citations ranged from 11.1% to 21.4%. A significant number of RCTs (9.1-18.2%) was retrieved for each of selected topics. They were often recently published RCTs. We think that correction of Clinical Queries filter (when they focus on therapy and use narrow search) is necessary to avoid biased search results with loss of relevant and up-to-date scientifically sound information.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc.Home page
N. L. Wilczynski and R. B. Haynes
Response to Corrao et al.: Improving Efficacy of PubMed Clinical Queries for Retrieving Scientifically Strong Studies on Treatment
J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc., March 1, 2007; 14(2): 247 - 248.
[Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH
Copyright © 1994 by the American Medical Informatics Association.