Submitted by Kristin Hitchcock, FPIN Librarian Team
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Librarians are expert searchers. We know databases. We know search strategies. And we know the importance of using quality tools. Librarian members of the Family Physicians Inquiries Network (FPIN) have translated this expertise into the publication of a successful article series: "Clinical Inquiries" published in the Journal of Family Practice and American Family Physician. Each article pairs physicians (and other health professionals) with librarians in order to answer one clinical question. Librarians take responsibility for the methodology used to identify relevant evidence-based results and, in this role, they serve as full-fledged co-authors.
An important part of this process has been developing tools in support of a rigorous and well-documented review methodology. One of the FPIN Librarian Team's goals is to create a systematic approach to literature searching that achieves a standard of uniformity in retrieval and quality of content. A team of talented medical librarian searchers have collaborated to create search strategies and filters for four inquiry types. The therapy and diagnosis filters were created first, followed in the past year by new diagnostic testing and prognosis filters. To provide for both camps of MEDLINE searchers, these filters have been customized for both PubMed and Ovid search systems. Our team has built upon the work of McKibbon and Haynes, other published sources, and the expertise of veteran searchers. We really wanted to capture knowledge of some the best searchers in our field. This has been translated into in-depth search guidelines accompanying each filter that we hope will be of help to librarians new to FPIN processes and those with less search experience as they work through their initial searches. It's a search jungle out there, and it always helps to have a map!
The redesigned and new search filters, posted in September, 2005, are publicly available at the FPIN website: http://www.fpin.org/ci/librarian/.
