Original ArticlesA Two-Term MEDLINE Search Strategy for Identifying Randomized Trials in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
The following steps were undertaken in performing this study: we developed a simple search strategy for MEDLINE identification of RCTs by a survey of practicing obstetricians and gynecologists, created a database (reference standard) of RCTs by MEDLINE and handsearch of four obstetrics and gynecology journals, and compared the yield of our MEDLINE and handsearches against this reference standard. In this study, we defined an RCT as a trial in which subjects are allocated randomly to two or more
Results
The questionnaires from which our search strategy was developed were returned by 14 of 17 clinicians in our department. Ten of these 14 clinicians indicated two search terms, two indicated one search term, and another two did not indicate any search terms. The two most common search terms, controlled-clinical-trial (publication type) and randomized-controlled-trial (publication type), accounted for 15 of 22 terms chosen in the survey of clinicians.
There were 403 RCTs of parallel design in the
Discussion
Clinicians spend limited time reading medical literature, with specialist registrars (resident doctors) and consultants (attending physicians) spending 10–90 minutes a week reading the literature.[4]To practice evidence-based medicine, this time should be spent generating clinical questions and seeking and appraising the best evidence for patient care before applying it to clinical practice.[4]With this time constraint on clinicians, methods for identifying published evidence should be simple
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