Search MEDLINE (Ovid)
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MEDLINE (Ovid) Overview
Hosted by Ovid, MEDLINE Is the premier biomedical database from the National Library of Medicine. Covers all biomedical subjects including medicine, biological & physical sciences, nursing, healthcare management, & information science as it relates to healthcare.
Strengths
- Automatically maps your search terms to preferred medical subject headings (MeSH)
- Offers proximity searching. For example, lung adj5 transplant allows you to search for a string of terms within 5 words of lung and transplant such as lung and antibiotics therapy in transplant
- Includes citations back to 1946. Search MEDLINE In-Process to find the most recently published articles. Search Old MEDLINE for articles dating from 1946.
- Includes references to the evidence-based Cochrane Systematic Reviews
- Structured approach to searching for complex topics
- Search different Ovid databases at one time, e.g., you can search MEDLINE & EMBASE simultaneously (however, the "Map Term to Subject Heading" feature, which automatically utilizes a database controlled vocabulary, such as MeSH or EMTREE, is disengaged).
Limitations
- When performing a subject search, you must select the Explode option to expand search results
- Conference abstracts are not indexed
- Unlike PubMed, there is not a direct link to consumer health information from MedlinePlus
Help Resources
- Brief video tutorial (18 min.)The course will highlight the unique structure of this database (including MeSH and the Tree) and includes a detailed review of specific limits, fields and search tips for this resource.
- Video: Special techniques in MEDLINE (10 min.)Learn more about searching using the NLM’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), floating subheadings, and implementing specific limits such as clinical queries, MEDLINE, Publication types and Limits.