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Mapping the evidence base of pathology
Author(s) -
Booth Andrew
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the journal of pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.964
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1096-9896
pISSN - 0022-3417
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9896(199908)188:4<344::aid-path331>3.0.co;2-c
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , medicine , evidence based medicine , protocol (science) , medline , pathology , psychology , alternative medicine , psychiatry , biology , biochemistry
Evidence‐based medicine (EBM) is a paradigm that is beginning to exert an influence in related fields such as surgery, general practice, psychiatry, and now pathology. For example, a survey has shown that 70 per cent of therapeutic interventions in clinical haematology delivered in a district general hospital were based on research‐derived evidence. A prerequisite to evidence‐based pathology is availability of, and access to, the evidence base. As a discipline, pathology has certain characteristics that makes information retrieval more challenging. Nevertheless, a number of evidence‐seeking techniques can be utilized to maximize the chances of success: focusing the question, use of an evidence‐seeking protocol, and application of methodological filters. A number of key information sources are reviewed for their usefulness and a comparison is made with the yield from the World Wide Web. Conclusions are drawn from an example of the evidence‐seeking process based on a clinical scenario involving immune thrombocytopenic purpura. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.