What you are searching for changes how you search
Searching for medicines, clinical interventions, and medical devices.
I spent ten years as a member of a prominent evidence review group (ERG) searching for studies for Health Technology Assessment (HTA). This included searching for: reviews of clinical effectiveness, cost effectiveness, adverse events, utilities, diagnostic or prognostics, surrogate outcomes and searching for decision-models. I have designed bespoke searching approaches for these reviews in the ERG and for industry. I have also commented on and critiqued industry submissions, both for the ERG and for industry, prior to submission to NICE.
Examples of searching
Complicated searching
My early work focused on reviews to inform public health guidance. These complicated and multi-component reviews of complex interventions required searching which conformed to guidance but often needed to take novel approaches to study identification. The tacit experience gained in these reviews, and subsequent reviews, led to methodological work which seeks to address the tricky question, how do you search for studies and data beyond clinical interventions?
Examples of searching
Tricky searching (known by other names…)
Tricky searching, that is searching which cannot follow a ‘conventional approach’, is where I spent the majority of my time. This tended to be developing searches for QES but also so-called rapid reviews.
This style of searching requires an understanding of the rules and the search methods, as well as understanding the information need(s): namely, it is about knowing what you are searching for and aligning this with a search approach or approaches.
Examples of searching