Where and how to search scientific medical evidence?

© 2014, Sociedad de Cirujanos de Chile. All rights Reserved. The practice of evidence based medicine requires strategies to efficiently search relevant medical information. This paper provides tools to optimize literature searches and access the best papers available. There are several electronic databases that can be consulted such as MEDLINE, LILACS, Web of Knowledge, The Cochrane Library, TRIP database, EMBASE and Google Scholar. Prior to the search, a research question must be formulated, structured according to the mnemonic rule PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparator and Outcome). The question must be adapted to the language of the search engine with the help of Boolean operators, MeSH terms, keywords and methodological filters such as type of study, type of population, clinical category and sensitivity. These techniques will allow the performance of an efficient literature search in a shorter lapse.