Library guides: Medicine: Databases for clinical evidence

Databases for clinical evidence

Clinical evidence databases

Good health professionals inform their clinical practice by consulting the best evidence available to them.

Depending on the type of clinical question (risk, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, etc), the level of evidence available will vary, from the lowest levels such as expert opinion through to individual case studies, cohort studies, clinical trials, and finally randomised controlled trials and meta analyses at the highest level.

In some cases a systematic review that analyses the results of a number of randomised controlled trials may be available to summarise the evidence on a particular clinical question.

The resources below may assist you in your search for clinical evidence.

Cochrane Library
Provides in-depth research summaries (systematic reviews), and research journal articles with a focus on evidence-based medicine and healthcare.
The Cochrane Library is a collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; Cochrane Methodology Register; Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects; Health Technology Assessment Database; and NHS Economic Evaluation Database.
MEDLINE (EBSCOhost)
Find the details of journal articles and other publications across the biomedical and life sciences. MEDLINE is a subset of PubMed.
MEDLINE is produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It is one of the foremost databases of biomedical literature covering virtually every area in the broad field of biomedicine. MEDLINE provides data on toxicology, nutrition, pharmacology, medicine, dentistry, nursing, veterinary medicine, psychiatry, medical engineering and pathology, communication disorders, population and reproductive biology.
MOBILE ACCESS: EBSCOhost is optimised for mobile use and has an iPhone/iPad and Android app available.
Embase
Includes journals and other publications in the biomedical sciences.
Summary of licence
CINAHL Complete (EBSCOhost)
A comprehensive database of journal articles and other publications for nursing and allied health. Coverage includes nursing specialties, speech pathology, nutrition, general health and medicine and more.
Includes indexing for over 5,000 journals, with extensive full-text coverage available for over 1,200.

MOBILE ACCESS: EBSCOhost is optimized for mobile use and has an iPhone/iPad and Android app available.

Summary of licence
Best Practice
Decision-support tool with evidence-based summaries and resources on medical symptoms and conditions. Includes guidelines, patient information and case reports.
Summary of licence

BMJ Clinical Evidence (now known as Best Practice)
Now known as Best Practice, BMJ Clinical Evidence systematic reviews summarise the current state of knowledge and uncertainty about the prevention and treatment of clinical conditions, based on thorough searches and appraisal of the literature.

TRIP Database
Find evidence-based healthcare resources sourced from across the internet.
UpToDate (Ovid)
Find answers to clinical questions that arise in daily practice. Covers a wide array of topics and medical specialties. Includes links to full text articles, drug interaction databases and medical calculators.
NOTE: Individual personal user accounts are not supported in Griffith University's subscription to UpToDate. The 'Log In' link in the UpToDate interface is not relevant for Griffith users and is to be disregarded.
DynaMed
DynaMed is a decision support tool that clinicians go to for answers. It is updated daily to produce a collection of the most current evidence curated from more than 500 medical journals.
NOTE: Griffith students and staff may register for a personal DynaMed account. Having a personal account enables you to log into DynaMed from off-campus using this account instead of authenticating through the Library's proxy server. A personal account is also required to download and use the iOS or Android DynaMed app on mobile devices. -- When registering for a personal account, do not use your Griffith student or staff login and password. Your user ID for the personal account will be your Griffith email address and you must choose your own password.