PHARMACY INFORMATICS LEC - Unit 2.2: Researching Drug Information

Information Search Process

• Six-stage model of the user’s holistic experience in the process of information seeking

• Identifies 3 realms of experience:

  • Affective (feelings)

  • Cognitive (thoughts)

  • Physical (actions)

• Central to the model is the notion that uncertainty, both affective and cognitive, increases and decreases in the process of information seeking

Initiation

• Recognize a need for information

• Becomes aware of the gap in knowledge

• Feelings of uncertainty and apprehension

Selection

• Identify and select the general topic and approach

• Gives way to optimism

Exploration

• Most difficult stage in the ISP

• Investigate information on the general topic to extend personal understanding

• Feelings of confusion, uncertainty, doubt, and overwhelmed

Formulation

• Form a focus

• Feeling of confidence increases

Collection

• Interaction between the user and information system functions most effectively

• Gather information related to the focused topic

• Defining and supporting the focus

• Selecting information related to the focused perspective of the topic

Presentation

• Complete the search

• Sense of satisfaction/disappointment

• Culminating the search with a personalized synthesis

• Involves a summary search

Tertiary Resources

• Not discovered by the author themselves

• Information filtered and summarized by the author or editor

• Textbooks

• Examples:

  • Compendia

  • Clinical Guidelines

  • Online Drug Databases

Tertiary Resources

What Type of Resource is the Clinical Practice Guidelines?

Tertiary Resources

What Type of Resource is the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis?

Tertiary Resources

What Type of Resource is the Compendia?

Tertiary Resources

What Type of Resource is the Textbooks?

Secondary Resources

• Provide access to primary or tertiary resources found in journals

• Provides abbreviated reviews of articles

Indexing

Provide bibliographic citation information

Abstracting

Includes a brief description (abstract)

Secondary Resources

What Type of Resource is the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)?

Secondary Resources

What Type of Resource is the MEDLINE/PubMed?

Phrase Searching

Searches the concept instead of individual terms

Simple Search

AKA keyword search

Boolean Search

Allows you to combine search terms to pull precise information

Wildcard

Character that substitutes any possible character in the search

Truncation

AKA stemming or root expansion

Advances Search

Allows you to limit the search based on pre-defined conditions

Primary Resources

• Original works that provide first-hand evidence, whether published or unpublished

• Does not include review articles or editorials found in journals

Primary Resources

Resources that provides most complete information

Primary Resources

Resources that necessitates readers to have sufficient skill and time

Primary Resources

What Type of Resource is the Clinical Studies?

Alternative Resources

• Internet searches

• Internet-based/online media needs to be evaluated for accuracy

Scholarly Journal Articles

• Written by experts in a field, researchers, scholars, or professors

• “Serious” looking

• Mostly text

• Some charts, graphs, or tables

• Fewer advertisements

• Longer articles

Popular Articles

• Written by reporters or journals, staff writers, or freelance writers

• Color photographs

• Has advertisements

• Easy-to-read or eye-catching layout