Resources

Resources

Website	Description
Best Bets	Quick answers to common problems (but often ER type so scope is limited) written by physicians or trainees. Includes search terms, summaries of search results and a clinical bottom line.
Cochrane Collaboration	Independent, volunteer reviews of clinical evidence. Sometimes a bit dated but reviews are nicely done, comprehensive for the date of publication.
CPSBC Library	College of Physicians & Surgeons of British Columbia Library
CPSBC Audiovisual & PDA resources	Online multimedia procedures training and reference in emergency medicine and anesthesia.
CPSBC Cites and Bytes	Monthly newsletter from CPSBC to help keep up to date with new developments in medicine.
Databases	Search through various medical databases
Doctor’s Guide	A nice section on conferences offered throughout the world, sorted by specialty, location or date (see the Congress resource Center link on the left hand menu). Summarizes some late breaking medical news and CME events.
Electronic Journals	2500 e-journals in full text including BMJ, Lancet, and 18 Clinics of North America titles
Epocrates Online	A web version of the great epocrates drug database program (available in free & paid versions on iPhone, iPod Touch, Palm PDAs, Windows Mobile, Blackberry). Requires free registration. Rapid lookup of drug doses, side effects and interactions. An impressive, easy to use multicheck function allows drug interaction checking among >20 meds at once. Requires free registration. Premium version ($99 USD/yr) opens up pill identifiers, OTC and herbal databases. Note largely has US brand names and many Canada-only names/drugs not included.
Family Doctor.org	Great site for patient handouts and well written, easy to understand information. A search box allows patients to search for their conditions or treatments. Offers good links and printer-friendly versions.
Google Reader	RSS reader: an easy way to subscribe to the contents of websites without needing to visit them regularly. “RSS feeds” are headlines and full or summarized articles from most current sites on the internet. Look for the “RSS subscribe” link or orange RSS icon . Google Reader requires a google or gmail account (free).
InfoPOEMS via CMA	Free for CMA members (free, requires registration). Subscribe to the daily InfoPOEMs articles: quick reads with commentary on recent clinical trials. The CMA.ca newsletters section has a large number of other newsletters (eg. Conference notifications, practice tips, etc).
Journal of Family Practice	Great section with patient handouts.
Various Journal Table of Contents	Subscribe to the table of contents for journals that interest you. Often they provide late breaking / important articles for free. A good way to skim over new developments and mark items for future review. Try RSS feeds for the contents rather than email to improve efficiency.
Physician’s First Watch	Subscription based ($99/yr) but some free articles. Large spectrum of specialties covered, can choose which fields you want to follow. Physician’s First Watch (free) provides summaries of current medical news topics.
PubMed	A simplified interface to searching medical literature (MEDLINE database). Easy to use search box with links to articles and related trials.
SumSearch	A metasearching service which searches MEDLINE (for review articles, guidelines, etc), Merck Manual and other textbooks, DARE database (Database of Abstract of Reviews of Effectiveness), and National Guideline Clearinghouse from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR).
The Heart.org	Nice summaries and discussion of recent cardiovascular trials/late breaking news
Trip Database	A simple search site for EBM resources. Uses a search box like Google but restricts results to ~75 recognized EBM resources. Nice filters (Reviews, Guidelines, research, etc)
UpToDate, UpToDate Patients	Subscription based ($495 USD/yr), excellent regularly updated articles, with good links and current references. Large selection of patient info at uptodate.com/patients
Wikipedia	Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. Articles can be written by anyone but are also open for review and commenting/editing by others. It relies on the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to edit and ensure accuracy of information. Definitely not peer reviewed but may provide a better starting place for patients rather than “Dr. Google.” In my experience, most medical articles are too short but seem reasonably balanced and accurate. Most articles provide useful links for further reading.

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