Supplement:
Conducting an Ovid Literature Search

Here is a suggested search using Ovid.

The following search was conducted in October 2004.

Enter the term for Pauline's condition:  congestive heart failure. Ovid will map this term to the appropriate Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) as well as map term to text word (indicated by .mp.)

Next, enter the term for the intervention, digoxin. Ovid will map this term to the appropriate Medical Subject Heading (MeSH)

Next, enter the term for the outcome, hospitalization. Ovid will map this term to the appropriate Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) as well as map term to text word (indicated by .mp.)

Next, combine the 3 terms using and.

This is a therapy question. We know from the previous discussion that the best evidence for a therapy question is a randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT). Use the Limit function to limit the results to randomized controlled trial as a publication type. At this point we can also limit to English language, human, and age group, if needed.

Review the results

Review the titles and abstracts to identify potentially relevant articles. 

Back to: Literature Search