Clinical Queries
Clinical Queries are specialised PubMed/Medline searches intended for clinicians.
They use filters to limit results to articles that report research conducted with specific methodologies. Results can be sorted by the following categories:
- Etiology
- Diagnosis
- Therapy
- Prognosis
- Clinical Prediction Guidelines
Scopes can be set to
- Maximise sensitivity (to broaden results)
- Maximise specificity (to narrow results).
Instructions
1. To access Clinical Queries, click on the link from the PubMed landing page
2. Enter your search query into the Clinical Queries search box
3. Use the Filter pulldown menu to select a category from the Clinical Study categories, for example Therapy
Clinical Study categories include: Etiology, Diagnosis, Therapy, Prognosis and Clinical Prediction Guidelines
4. Use the Scope pulldown menu to select Broad or Narrow
Broad will maximise sensitivity - more results
Narrow will maximise specificity - fewer results
1. Build your search in Medline (Ovid)
2. Click on Additional Limits
3. From the Clinical Queries box, select an option from the scroll down menu
This includes nine categories:
Reviews, Therapy, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Causation-Etiology, Clinical Prediction Guides, Qualitative and Costs
Sensitivity = more results and might also include some off target articles
Specificity = fewer (more focused) results but might miss some relevant articles
Best Balance= balance between sensitivity and specificity
4. Select your options and click on Limit a Search
