Focused Searches

Background

The Challenge: How to find useful information quickly?
Biomedical information repositories such as Ovid MEDLINE and Embase on Ovid, contain tens of millions of database records on past and currently available medical literature. Updated on a regular basis, they are large, diverse, highly structured and relentlessly dynamic general purpose resources. This can present challenges to health care professionals in clinical settings, for whom (a). only a sub-set of the database is relevant to them, and (b). they need to be able to quickly locate references that they can be sure are both clinically relevant and scientifically sound.

The Solution: Tested and trusted search filters
An important category of tried, tested and trusted database search filters are validated search filters. These are search strategies made available by subject matter and information experts who have constructed and developed them using a reference set of data as a ‘gold standard’. The resulting search filters are then tested against a test set of references in order to assess their effectiveness in terms of targeted and reliable information retrieval. Where they consistently exceed a certain threshold they are deemed ‘validated’. Although such search filters, as is here the case, may only be comprised of 4-6 search expression lines, the fact of their validation accords them a preferred status in terms of being an information retrieval option. In short, validated search filters are high quality, reliable ‘knowledge assists’ that help both clinicians and those that advise them on information retrieval matters, e.g. librarians and information specialists, to find useful information quickly.

The Source: Clinical Queries from McMaster University in Canada
As used here by Focused Searches, the phrase ‘clinical queries’ refers to database search filters that have been developed by the Health Information Research Unit (HIRU), based at McMaster University in Canada. Made available as part of their Hedges Project, the clinical query validated search filters cover dedicated ‘purpose categories’ surrounding human health disorders. The purpose categories are causation (etiology), course (prognosis), diagnosis, treatment and therapy, clinical predictions, the economics around human health disorders, studies of quality improvement of health services as well as continuing education of health care professionals. For fuller information on clinical queries, their origins as well as a list of accompanying references, please see  https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/ .

How to make best use of clinical queries?
This Focused Search presents the clinical query for the HIRU ‘purpose category’ Economics, in three versions. The first version (see #1 in the table below), when used in combination with a human health disorder, has been tuned for maximized sensitivity. This is a broad search that will seek to return the highest proportion of relevant results pertaining to treatments and therapies related to the specified human health disorder. It may also include some less relevant results. By contrast its counterpart (see #2 in the table below) which is tuned for maximized specificity, constitutes a narrow search. It will seek to return the highest possible proportion of least relevant results. Being then such a targeted search, designed to include only the most relevant results, it may in doing so miss some of these otherwise wished for references. A third option (see #3 in the table below) is a search that has been tuned to seek a middle way between the broad and narrow search options, that is, to obtain the best balance between sensitivity and specificity. 

Adapted from https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/medline/

Are these search filters still up to date?
Yes, the clinical query validated search filters are up to date. For further information, please refer to the publications listed in Re: Search Filter - Currency: in the References section below.

Why does the Focus Search display as a list of search lines?
The format of the rendered Focused Search for this clinical query is in two parts. The first part is a single line which contains all the clinical query’s relevant terms and expressions. The second part splits the constituent terms and expressions into their component sub-parts and then lists these line by line. At the bottom of the list of component sub-parts the OR operator is then used to obtain an overall result for all the terms and expressions in combination. This result should always be the same as the very first line. The aim of unpacking the clinical query line by line in this way is to ensure the purpose behind each line is understood as is the Ovid syntax used in the line’s construction.

Ovid Syntax Check

• The expression ‘ec.fs’ indicates a search on the MeSH subheading ‘economics’, but as a floating subheading (.fs), i.e. not bound to a specific MeSH term.
• An .mp or ‘multi-purpose’ search, searches across a set of default fields for the database.
• ‘tw’ stands for ‘text word’, a field in Ovid MEDLINE covering both title (TI) and abstract (AB).
• The character ‘:’ is a wildcard denoting truncation. Ovid now more usually uses ‘$’ or ‘*’.
• Search lines can be connected one after the other using the OR operator. Alternatively the search line can be grouped together using the expression ‘or/2-4’ where ‘or’ refers to the OR operator and  the numbers 2-4 refer to the search lines #2, #3 and #4.

Reviewers:

Primary: Michael Fanning

Secondary: Darlene Ennis

Review Date: 2024-07-15

Expiry Date: 2025-07-15

Original search produced by:

McMaster University

References:

Re: McMaster University, Health Information Research Unit, Hedges Project
For information on clinical queries, as well as a list of accompanying references, please see https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/

Re: Search Filter - Currency:
Navarro-Ruan T, Haynes RB. Preliminary comparison of the performance of the National Library of Medicine's systematic review publication type and the sensitive clinical queries filter for systematic reviews in PubMed. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA. 2022 Jan 1;110(1):43. Full text link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8830395/

Wilczynski NL, McKibbon KA, Walter SD, Garg AX, Haynes RB. MEDLINE clinical queries are robust when searching in recent publishing years. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2013 Mar 1;20(2):363-8. Full text link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3638187/ 

OvidGO! / Skills Videos 
What is a bibliographic database?
What is the structure of a database?
What is Ovid MEDLINE?
What are Boolean Operators?
What are wildcards?
Subject heading searching
 

Strategy:

Background

The Challenge: How to find useful information quickly?
Biomedical information repositories such as Ovid MEDLINE and Embase on Ovid, contain tens of millions of database records on past and currently available medical literature. Updated on a regular basis, they are large, diverse, highly structured and relentlessly dynamic general purpose resources. This can present challenges to health care professionals in clinical settings, for whom (a). only a sub-set of the database is relevant to them, and (b). they need to be able to quickly locate references that they can be sure are both clinically relevant and scientifically sound.

The Solution: Tested and trusted search filters
An important category of tried, tested and trusted database search filters are validated search filters. These are search strategies made available by subject matter and information experts who have constructed and developed them using a reference set of data as a ‘gold standard’. The resulting search filters are then tested against a test set of references in order to assess their effectiveness in terms of targeted and reliable information retrieval. Where they consistently exceed a certain threshold they are deemed ‘validated’. Although such search filters, as is here the case, may only be comprised of 4-6 search expression lines, the fact of their validation accords them a preferred status in terms of being an information retrieval option. In short, validated search filters are high quality, reliable ‘knowledge assists’ that help both clinicians and those that advise them on information retrieval matters, e.g. librarians and information specialists, to find useful information quickly.

The Source: Clinical Queries from McMaster University in Canada
As used here by Focused Searches, the phrase ‘clinical queries’ refers to database search filters that have been developed by the Health Information Research Unit (HIRU), based at McMaster University in Canada. Made available as part of their Hedges Project, the clinical query validated search filters cover dedicated ‘purpose categories’ surrounding human health disorders. The purpose categories are causation (etiology), course (prognosis), diagnosis, treatment and therapy, clinical predictions, the economics around human health disorders, studies of quality improvement of health services as well as continuing education of health care professionals. For fuller information on clinical queries, their origins as well as a list of accompanying references, please see  https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/ .

How to make best use of clinical queries?
This Focused Search presents the clinical query for the HIRU ‘purpose category’ Qualitative, in three versions. The first version (see #1 in the table below), when used in combination with a human health disorder, has been tuned for maximized sensitivity. This is a broad search that will seek to return the highest proportion of relevant results pertaining to treatments and therapies related to the specified human health disorder. It may also include some less relevant results. By contrast its counterpart (see #2 in the table below) which is tuned for maximized specificity, constitutes a narrow search. It will seek to return the highest possible proportion of least relevant results. Being then such a targeted search, designed to include only the most relevant results, it may in doing so miss some of these otherwise wished for references. A third option (see #3 in the table below) is a search that has been tuned to seek a middle way between the broad and narrow search options, that is, to obtain the best balance between sensitivity and specificity.

Adapted from https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/medline/

Are these search filters still up to date?
Yes, the clinical query validated search filters are up to date. For further information, please refer to the publications listed in Re: Search Filter - Currency: in the References section below.

Why does the Focus Search display as a list of search lines?
The format of the rendered Focused Search for this clinical query is in two parts. The first part is a single line which contains all the clinical query’s relevant terms and expressions. The second part splits the constituent terms and expressions into their component sub-parts and then lists these line by line. At the bottom of the list of component sub-parts the OR operator is then used to obtain an overall result for all the terms and expressions in combination. This result should always be the same as the very first line. The aim of unpacking the clinical query line by line in this way is to ensure the purpose behind each line is understood as is the Ovid syntax used in the line’s construction.

Ovid Syntax Check

• The expression ‘px.fs’ indicates a search on the MeSH subheading ‘psychology’, but as a floating subheading (.fs), i.e. not bound to a specific MeSH term.
• An .mp or ‘multi-purpose’ search, searches across a set of default fields for the database.
• ‘tw’ stands for ‘text word’, a field in Ovid MEDLINE covering both title (TI) and abstract (AB).
• The character ‘:’ is a wildcard denoting truncation. Ovid now more usually uses ‘$’ or ‘*’.
• Search lines can be connected one after the other using the OR operator. Alternatively the search line can be grouped together using the expression ‘or/2-4’ where ‘or’ refers to the OR operator and  the numbers 2-4 refer to the search lines #2, #3 and #4.

Reviewers:

Primary: Michael Fanning

Secondary: Darlene Ennis

Review Date: 2024-07-15

Expiry Date: 2025-07-15

Original search produced by:

McMaster University

References:

Re: McMaster University, Health Information Research Unit, Hedges Project
For information on clinical queries, as well as a list of accompanying references, please see https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/

Re: Search Filter - Currency:
Navarro-Ruan T, Haynes RB. Preliminary comparison of the performance of the National Library of Medicine's systematic review publication type and the sensitive clinical queries filter for systematic reviews in PubMed. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA. 2022 Jan 1;110(1):43. Full text link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8830395/

Wilczynski NL, McKibbon KA, Walter SD, Garg AX, Haynes RB. MEDLINE clinical queries are robust when searching in recent publishing years. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2013 Mar 1;20(2):363-8. Full text link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3638187/ 

OvidGO! / Skills Videos
What is a bibliographic database?
What is the structure of a database?
What is Ovid MEDLINE?
What are Boolean Operators?
What are wildcards?
Subject heading searching

Strategy:

Background

The Challenge: How to find useful information quickly?
Biomedical information repositories such as Ovid MEDLINE and Embase on Ovid, contain tens of millions of database records on past and currently available medical literature. Updated on a regular basis, they are large, diverse, highly structured and relentlessly dynamic general purpose resources. This can present challenges to health care professionals in clinical settings, for whom (a). only a sub-set of the database is relevant to them, and (b). they need to be able to quickly locate references that they can be sure are both clinically relevant and scientifically sound.

The Solution: Tested and trusted search filters
An important category of tried, tested and trusted database search filters are validated search filters. These are search strategies made available by subject matter and information experts who have constructed and developed them using a reference set of data as a ‘gold standard’. The resulting search filters are then tested against a test set of references in order to assess their effectiveness in terms of targeted and reliable information retrieval. Where they consistently exceed a certain threshold they are deemed ‘validated’. Although such search filters, as is here the case, may only be comprised of 4-6 search expression lines, the fact of their validation accords them a preferred status in terms of being an information retrieval option. In short, validated search filters are high quality, reliable ‘knowledge assists’ that help both clinicians and those that advise them on information retrieval matters, e.g. librarians and information specialists, to find useful information quickly.

The Source: Clinical Queries from McMaster University in Canada
As used here by Focused Searches, the phrase ‘clinical queries’ refers to database search filters that have been developed by the Health Information Research Unit (HIRU), based at McMaster University in Canada. Made available as part of their Hedges Project, the clinical query validated search filters cover dedicated ‘purpose categories’ surrounding human health disorders. The purpose categories are causation (etiology), course (prognosis), diagnosis, treatment and therapy, clinical predictions, the economics around human health disorders, studies of quality improvement of health services as well as continuing education of health care professionals. For fuller information on clinical queries, their origins as well as a list of accompanying references, please see  https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/ .

How to make best use of clinical queries?
This Focused Search presents the clinical query for the HIRU ‘purpose category’ Reviews, in three versions. The first version (see #1 in the table below), when used in combination with a human health disorder, has been tuned for maximized sensitivity. This is a broad search that will seek to return the highest proportion of relevant results pertaining to treatments and therapies related to the specified human health disorder. It may also include some less relevant results. By contrast its counterpart (see #2 in the table below) which is tuned for maximized specificity, constitutes a narrow search. It will seek to return the highest possible proportion of least relevant results. Being then such a targeted search, designed to include only the most relevant results, it may in doing so miss some of these otherwise wished for references. A third option (see #3 in the table below) is a search that has been tuned to seek a middle way between the broad and narrow search options, that is, to obtain the best balance between sensitivity and specificity. 

Adapted from https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/medline/

Are these search filters still up to date?
Yes, the clinical query validated search filters are up to date. For further information, please refer to the publications listed in Re: Search Filter - Currency: in the References section below.

Why does the Focus Search display as a list of search lines?
The format of the rendered Focused Search for this clinical query is in two parts. The first part is a single line which contains all the clinical query’s relevant terms and expressions. The second part splits the constituent terms and expressions into their component sub-parts and then lists these line by line. At the bottom of the list of component sub-parts the OR operator is then used to obtain an overall result for all the terms and expressions in combination. This result should always be the same as the very first line. The aim of unpacking the clinical query line by line in this way is to ensure the purpose behind each line is understood as is the Ovid syntax used in the line’s construction.

Ovid Syntax Check

• An .mp or ‘multi-purpose’ search, searches across a set of default fields for the database.
• ‘pt’ stands for ‘publication type’, a specifically indexed field in Ovid MEDLINE.
• ‘tw’ stands for ‘text word’, a field in Ovid MEDLINE covering both title (TI) and abstract (AB).
• The expression ‘di.xs’ indicates a search on the MeSH subheading ‘diagnosis’, but as an exploded floating subheading (.xs), i.e. not bound to a specific MeSH term.
• The character ‘:’ is a wildcard denoting truncation. Ovid now more usually uses ‘$’ or ‘*’.
• Search lines can be connected one after the other using the OR operator. Alternatively the search line can be grouped together using the expression ‘or/2-4’ where ‘or’ refers to the OR operator and  the numbers 2-4 refer to the search lines #2, #3 and #4.

Reviewers:

Primary: Michael Fanning

Secondary: Darlene Ennis

Review Date: 2024-07-15

Expiry Date: 2025-07-15

Original search produced by:

McMaster University

References:

Re: McMaster University, Health Information Research Unit, Hedges Project
For information on clinical queries, as well as a list of accompanying references, please see https://hiruweb.mcmaster.ca/hkr/hedges/

Re: Search Filter - Currency:
Navarro-Ruan T, Haynes RB. Preliminary comparison of the performance of the National Library of Medicine's systematic review publication type and the sensitive clinical queries filter for systematic reviews in PubMed. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA. 2022 Jan 1;110(1):43. Full text link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8830395/

Wilczynski NL, McKibbon KA, Walter SD, Garg AX, Haynes RB. MEDLINE clinical queries are robust when searching in recent publishing years. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2013 Mar 1;20(2):363-8. Full text link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3638187/ 

OvidGO! / Skills Videos
What is a bibliographic database?
What is the structure of a database?
What is Ovid MEDLINE?
What are Boolean Operators?
What are wildcards?
Subject heading searching

Strategy:

Background

On 13th August 2024, the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (African CDC) issued a public health warning, highlighting the spread of a particular strain of the mpox virus (formerly called the monkeypox virus). (1) The next day, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the mpox (monkeypox) outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. (2)

Wary of the informational challenges presented only just recently by the onset and impact of the covid 19 pandemic, researchers, health care professionals and policy decision makers all have a pressing need to acquire up to date information on mpox. Be it the virus, the disease or the vaccine or vaccines.

Nomenclature Changes
Locating information relating to mpox has its own unique challenges as the description of the virus and disease has undergone a nomenclature change. On 28th November 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended a new name for monkeypox disease, namely ‘mpox’. (3) The recommended change was in keeping with the 2015 WHO publication on best practices in naming diseases.  

“According to these best practices, new disease names should be given with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.”(3)

However, the name of the virus would remain unchanged – for the time being – to reflect its use in scientific literature. And in doing so, to continue to make relevant documents discoverable and retrievable. Biomedical databases, reflecting scientific publications and their terminological use over decades, have also used the term ‘monkeypox’ in their controlled vocabularies. For database searchers, be they novices or experienced searchers, this semantic transition from old to new, has consequences for database search query design.

Search Blocks
This Focused Search presents three search blocks that will help you quickly locate scientific literature on mpox, and that on the virus, the disease and vaccines, respectively. For ease of initial viewing the three search blocks are listed as a single search history which can be viewed via the Actions / Display option. The same search can be run directly in Ovid by clicking on Actions / Launch.

Search Design
Although listed in the Focused Search as a sequence of three searches, the search blocks were individually designed, constructed and tested. Their construction followed the conventional concept search approach of a database thesaurus search followed by a free term search, followed by the combination of the thesaurus and free term search using the Boolean operator, OR.

In all three cases, the thesaurus term’s Scope Note was used as the initial source of free terms. This was done in anticipation of a degree of similar coverage between the thesaurus term and its kindred free terms. However, where the Scope Note omitted terms or listed terms that, when tested were not found in the scientific literature, the free term search expression was amended accordingly. The details for each of the three search blocks are given in the table below.

The search blocks were peer reviewed by members of the Ovid Training Team

Search Assistance
The purpose of this Focused Search is to help kick-start your searches related to mpox, the virus, the disease and the vaccine(s). And this, for your own purposes as well as to help you assist those you advise and teach. By saving these blocks (with your own amendments and changes) in My Workspace you could combine them with Clinical Queries, for example. Or with respect to the vaccine, with the EMA’s search filter on adverse events. If you would like further assistance on or with this Focused Search, as well as on any aspects related to it, please click on Actions / Ovid Coaching and an Ovid Trainer will contact you. Alternatively, please send an e-mail to us at [email protected] .

Reviewers:

Primary: Michael Fanning

Secondary: Charlotte Viken

Review Date: 2024-08-19

Expiry Date: 2025-08-19

Original search produced by:

Ovid Training Team

References:

(1). Africa CDC Declares Mpox A Public Health Emergency of Continental Security, Mobilizing Resources Across the Continent
https://africacdc.org/news-item/africa-cdc-declares-mpox-a-public-health-emergency-of-continental-security-mobilizing-resources-across-the-continent/

(2). WHO Director-General declares mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern
https://www.who.int/news/item/14-08-2024-who-director-general-declares-mpox-outbreak-a-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern

(3). WHO recommends new name for monkeypox disease (28th November 2022)
https://www.who.int/news/item/28-11-2022-who-recommends-new-name-for-monkeypox-disease

(4). WHO Fact Sheets - Mpox (monkeypox)
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox

(5). UK NHS on Mpox
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mpox/

(6). US CDC on Mpox
https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/mpox/index.html

(7). DE RKI on Mpox
https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/A/Affenpocken/Ausbruch-2022-Situation-Deutschland.html

Strategy:

Background

On 13th August 2024, the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (African CDC) issued a public health warning, highlighting the spread of a particular strain of the mpox virus (formerly called the monkeypox virus). (1) The next day, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the mpox (monkeypox) outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. (2)

Wary of the informational challenges presented only just recently by the onset and impact of the covid 19 pandemic, researchers, health care professionals and policy decision makers all have a pressing need to acquire up to date information on mpox. Be it the virus, the disease or the vaccine or vaccines.

Nomenclature Changes
Locating information relating to mpox has its own unique challenges as the description of the virus and disease has undergone a nomenclature change. On 28th November 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended a new name for monkeypox disease, namely ‘mpox’. (3) The recommended change was in keeping with the 2015 WHO publication on best practices in naming diseases. 

“According to these best practices, new disease names should be given with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.”(3)

However, the name of the virus would remain unchanged – for the time being – to reflect its use in scientific literature. And in doing so, to continue to make relevant documents discoverable and retrievable. Biomedical databases, reflecting scientific publications and their terminological use over decades, have also used the term ‘monkeypox’ in their controlled vocabularies. For database searchers, be they novices or experienced searchers, this semantic transition from old to new, has consequences for database search query design.

Search Blocks
This Focused Search presents three search blocks that will help you quickly locate scientific literature on mpox, and that on the virus, the disease and vaccines, respectively. For ease of initial viewing the three search blocks are listed as a single search history which can be viewed via the Actions / Display option. The same search can be run directly in Ovid by clicking on Actions / Launch.

Search Design
Although listed in the Focused Search as a sequence of three searches, the search blocks were individually designed, constructed and tested. Their construction followed the conventional concept search approach of a database thesaurus search followed by a free term search, followed by the combination of the thesaurus and free term search using the Boolean operator, OR.

In all three cases, the thesaurus term’s Scope Note was used as the initial source of free terms. This was done in anticipation of a degree of similar coverage between the thesaurus term and its kindred free terms. However, where the Scope Note omitted terms or listed terms that, when tested were not found in the scientific literature, the free term search expression was amended accordingly. The details for each of the three search blocks are given in the table below.

The search blocks were peer reviewed by members of the Ovid Training Team

Search Assistance
The purpose of this Focused Search is to help kick-start your searches related to mpox, the virus, the disease and the vaccine(s). And this, for your own purposes as well as to help you assist those you advise and teach. By saving these blocks (with your own amendments and changes) in My Workspace you could combine them with Clinical Queries, for example. Or with respect to the vaccine, with the EMA’s search filter on adverse events. If you would like further assistance on or with this Focused Search, as well as on any aspects related to it, please click on Actions / Ovid Coaching and an Ovid Trainer will contact you. Alternatively, please send an e-mail to us at [email protected] .
 

Reviewers:

Primary: Michael Fanning

Secondary: Charlotte Viken

Review Date: 2024-08-19

Expiry Date: 2025-08-19

Original search produced by:

Ovid Training Team

References:

(1). Africa CDC Declares Mpox A Public Health Emergency of Continental Security, Mobilizing Resources Across the Continent
https://africacdc.org/news-item/africa-cdc-declares-mpox-a-public-health-emergency-of-continental-security-mobilizing-resources-across-the-continent/

(2). WHO Director-General declares mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern
https://www.who.int/news/item/14-08-2024-who-director-general-declares-mpox-outbreak-a-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern

(3). WHO recommends new name for monkeypox disease (28th November 2022)
https://www.who.int/news/item/28-11-2022-who-recommends-new-name-for-monkeypox-disease

(4). WHO Fact Sheets - Mpox (monkeypox)
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox

(5). UK NHS on Mpox
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mpox/

(6). US CDC on Mpox
https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/mpox/index.html

(7). DE RKI on Mpox
https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/A/Affenpocken/Ausbruch-2022-Situation-Deutschland.html

Strategy: