The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7161 p227-229
18 August 2001

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  Community pharmacy
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Health care databases

Access from pharmacy websites

From Mr D. C. McPhail, MRPharmS, and others

There is an increasing requirement for health care professionals working in the National Health Service to evaluate and disseminate evidence-based practice. A primary tool for assisting pharmacists in this task is accesses to appropriate databases. A number of search engines can be accessed through the National Electronic Library for Health (www.nelh.nhs.uk) although it is currently a pilot site.

Additionally, regular users of the electronic British Medical Journal (www.bmj.com) will note free access to the American National Library of Medicine database Medline via the PubMed search engine. An additional service provided to members of the British Medical Association is the use of Medline Plus, which allows easier searching of Medline through use of the OVID database interface.

Given the comprehensive library resources that are at the disposal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, we would like to suggest that access to more user-friendly search engines, such as OVID, should be made available to Society members via the respective Society or Pharmaceutical Journal websites using our Society registration numbers.

D. C. McPhail
S. Tyson
Local Health Care Co-operative Pharmacists, Fife

I. Bishop
K. Kirkpatrick
LHCC Pharmacists, Forth Valley

P. Westwood
LHCC Pharmacist, Lothian

G. Cruickshank
Practice Pharmacist, Dundee

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