Thursday 29 October 2009

Evidence summaries

So how do Clinical Librarians present their search results to clinicians? It's something I get asked about a lot. I don't know if my way's the right way, and I'd be interested to know what other people do too.

Generally I consider the level of evidence, and the date published and go from there. I never paraphrase results, I always lift the conclusion from the abstract. Due to time, it's rare that I'd do a full critical appraisal of a full text article, so most decisions of whether to include a study are based on a reading of the abstract.

I'd be really interested to know how others approach this, and what your opinions are. Please comment below!