Complexities of medical research can overwhelm those in medical crisis. The mother of invention, necessity has a nasty habit of forcing us to navigate those complexities when we have the fewest resources. Newbies to medical research may find the following of assistance. I welcome your suggestions.
ADJUSTING YOUR PERSPECTIVE TO LEARN A NEW FIELD
A. People are not widgets. Two people can have the same medical problem with different findings. Similar symptoms can be produced by differing causes.
B. Do not rely on one source of information whether it is one doctor, one article, one textbook, one website, or one journal. Initial searches of the medical journals that identify fewer than a hundred articles on a subject are probably missing the motherlode of information. Look for synonyms for the key search terms.
C. An overview is invaluable. Read a variety of articles presenting a variety of perspectives. Read about the controversies and current research.
D. Don't re-invent the wheel. Talk to others who have faced the same challenge. Patient support groups are invaluable.
The following links can be invaluable, especially for the non-professionals.
1. Medline Plus summaries (one of many types of information available at http://www.medlineplus.gov ) of the disease under investigation offer collections of links to the best sources of information available including patient advocacy groups, professional organizations, established guidelines, government agencies, and leading medical literature. Searching this website identifies a multitude of reliable sources of information. An actual "Medline Plus" summary offers the most links to the most reliable information available.
2. The scope of information available for the uninitiated through the following government website hubs is outstanding: http://www.medlineplus.gov,
3. Pubmed - http://www.pubmed.gov - the access tool for the National Library of Medicine's entry to articles appearing in thousands of medical journals. To develop an overview, one can retrieve the last 200 to 500 articles published on a subject, display 100 or more abstracts, and scan them. Before you can digest the information, you have to develop an overview. Scanning several hundred abstracts over a half hour or two assists in providing the overview necessary to begin understanding the complexities of the literature.
Articles designated as "review" articles, especially if they are recent review articles written at the invitation of a major journal for the purpose of "reviewing" the literature in the field are often worth extra attention.
Cochrane reviews offer fairly comprehensive reviews and updates of the literature.
4. Clusty - http://www.clusty.com - Vivisimo's ingenious search engine that "clusters" results has become a fixture at government websites for a good reason. Scanning results of a Clusty search almost always provides a reasonable overview of the organizations and major directions relating to a subject. Unlike Pubmed, the results are not limited to medical articles, but include professional organizations, government organizations, patient advocacy groups, news, funding sources, and more. Every use of Clusty generates a new "dummies guide" for what is available on the internet for the search terms entered.
5. National Academies Press - http://www.nap.edu - publishes a number of books issued by the Institute of Medicine. Many are available online without charge. Almost all can be read online free. While many topics are not covered, the treatises available tend to be balanced, fair, comprehensive, and well written.
More to follow.
