TL: Recently, while working on a project for a class, I needed to find some information about a condition (risk factors, causes, treatment, etc). In our PDA class recently there was a presentation about Dynamed. The database looked to be pretty easy to navigate and pretty complete in the information available, so I decided to give it a try.
I was amazed at how quickly I was able to get to the information I needed. I am definitely going to use that resource again as well as download it to my PDA!
3 comments:
PH: Much like TL, I decided to give Dynamed a whirl after it was presented by one of our instructors for the PDA class. I needed to find information about when to adjust basal insulin doses for a type 1 diabetic and how much to adjust it based on fasting blood glucose measurements that had been provided. I felt that this information would be challenging to track down via many of the PDA sources we have discussed, but I was able to find a very nice summary using Dynamed. I suspect it would have taken a lot longer to find the same information by trying to find it in the primary literature. I was very impressed with Dynamed and am certain I will utilize it more in the future.
The only thing I didn't get a sense for from the instructor and that I would like to know more about is the process of how information is extracted from the primary literature. Some details must get left out, how do they determine what to include in their summarization and what to exclude? What are the qualifications of the people that are making those determinations and how worried should I be that important information is being left out or misrepresented when the people at Dynamed condense the information? It would probably always be safest to track down the literature that they used and check it out first hand, but all in all I found Dynamed to be easy to use and it gave me quick access to information that some sources would not include.
As someone who works for DynaMed, I would encourage you to visit www.ebscohost.com/dynamed to learn more about the strict evidence-based process that each article goes through before it is added to DynaMed. You will also be able to find out more about the editors and contributors to the database.
These links will help you learn more about the content and the editorial team.
http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/content.php
http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/team.php
You might also be interested in signing up for the DynaMed Weekly Update. DynaMed editors systematically monitor a large volume of research reports daily and find articles that are of significant interest to many clinicians. Because these articles are of significant interest, the DynaMed team has refined a process for sending a weekly update briefly noting the most significant articles summarized during the week. In addition to clinical practice information, DynaMed Weekly Update also features information on DynaMed's Editorial Processes, drug recall information, and other related detail.
http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/weeklyUpdate.php
SE I've recently started to use Dynamed on my PDA and have set up to receive the weekly updates. Here is what I like the most about this resource.
The weekly updates are a great way to see what articles have recently been released from over 500 journals. The updates are short yet complete and are of clinical relavance.
The icons at the top of the screen are useful but cryptic. Trying to remember what each one stands for is not easy.
After one finds a disease state they wish to learn more about they may select from the 8 icons (DI,CR,Dx,Tx etc...) on the right hand side of the screen. Each item cites references which can be remotely auto linked to the full text article.
In comparrison to the search engine on Inforetreiver the Dynamed search works better.
I am looking forward to the drug monographs to be added soon. -End- SE
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