The PDQ Evidence Based Principles and Practice addresses the concepts of evidence based health care in a gentle, non-technical manner. One of its two major purposes is to provide a background to understand health care research and how best to evaluate and apply new research findings in health. The audience is librarians and other information professionals who work with health professionals. Clinicians seeking a gentle approach to working with health research findings will also benefit. In addition the book outlines how best to identify important studies in health care published in the large bibliographic databases such as MEDLINE and the Internet. Readers found the first edition useful in understanding health research and seeking this information. The second edition strengthened both purposes. It also adds 4 new chapters to the existing 9 that cover new areas of understanding and producing health research.

All chapters from the previous edition have been revised. Several new chapters (hot topics) have been added: Clinical Prediction Guides, Decision Analyses, Differential Diagnosis and Disease Manifestation and Health Technology Assessment.

Proven and validated search strategies for use in the large electronic biomedical databases have been included in the edition. Lists of possible searching terms have been enhanced and enlarged. We have also added an appendix of terms used in the book using plain language descriptions as well as searching tips and sites for retrieval in the categories of health research .

This book helps the reader develop optimal, effective MEDLINE search strategies. It offers step-by-step suggestions for retrieving sound clinical studies on the etiology, prognosis, diagnosis, prevention and management of disorders encountered in adult general medicine.