Sources of guidelines, research and evidence-based care.
Bandolier
A monthly journal, based in Oxford but with a global perspective, Bandolier is a trustworthy and well recognised source of evidence based healthcare information. www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/
Centre for Evidence-based Medicine
An Oxford-based centre established with the aim of developing, teaching and promoting evidence-based healthcare and providing support and resources to anyone who wants to make use of them. Its website has useful links to specialty-specific EBM sites. www.cebm.net
Clinical Evidence
BMJ Clinical Evidence publishes systematic reviews summarising the current state of knowledge and uncertainty about the prevention and treatment of clinical conditions. Athens users and subscribers can access the reviews online via a PC or PDA. There is also a handbook available for purchase. www.clinicalevidence.bmj.com
Clinical Knowledge Summaries
A reliable source of evidence-based information and practical “know how” about the common conditions managed in primary care. CKS is a service provided by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (contact them before using the website). http://cks.nice.org.uk/
The Cochrane Collaboration
An international organisation that aims to help people make well-informed decisions about healthcare by preparing, maintaining and promoting the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions. www.cochrane.org
The General Practice Notebook
The GP Notebook has an extremely good webpage with links to evidence based medicine arranged by condition/specialty and external links to more EBM sites. www.gpnotebook.co.uk
eGuidelines
This site focuses on EBM for primary care. It comprises regular summaries of national and European guidelines and also hosts a useful database (CLIP) of clinical effectiveness initiatives implemented by practices across the UK. www.eguidelines.co.uk
Health Evidence Bulletins Wales
Collection of evidence based guidance for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. www.hebw.cf.ac.uk/index.html
Lenus
The Irish Health Repository providing access to journals, research reports and HSE publications. www.lenus.ie/hse
National Guideline Clearinghouse
A comprehensive database hosted by the US government of evidence based clinical guidelines and related documents from around the world. It has a useful facility for comparing guidelines. www.guideline.gov
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
This is a statutory body in the UK which is charged with improving the quality of clinical services across the NHS by formulating guidelines on numerous conditions, and advising on methods of audit with relation to these guidelines. www.nice.org.uk
NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD)
The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) is a department of York University, established in 1994. It carries out high quality systematic reviews that “evaluate the effects of health and social care interventions and the delivery and organisation of healthcare”. It publishes several bulletins which can be downloaded from its website. www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd
Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN)
The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) was formed in 1993. Its objective is to improve the quality of healthcare for patients in Scotland by reducing variation in practice and outcome, through the development and dissemination of national clinical guidelines containing recommendations for effective practice based on current evidence. www.sign.ac.uk
Surgical Clinical Guidelines
A collection of international guidelines added to each month by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. They select the guidelines that have the most relevance to Irish surgical practice. www.rcsi.ie/
The Trip Database
Clinical search tool designed to allow health professionals to rapidly identify the highest quality clinical evidence for clinical practice. Registration is free. www.tripdatabase.com/index.html