BMJ  2003;327:E10 (4 October), doi:10.1136/bmjusa.01030005 (published 5 September 2002)

BMJ USA: Netlines

Netlines

Leeds, UK DrHarry{at}dial.pipex.com

This article originally appeared in BMJ USA

• The number of guidelines available has been soaring recently, making it harder to keep track of them all. The web offers an attractive solution to this problem, in particular the site of the Canadian Medical Association at www.cma.ca/cpgs/index.asp. The guidelines are searchable by text, although not all the results are available in full text. There are also a few links, which is particularly useful since no one site contains all the published guidelines. The site's excellent FAQs (frequently asked questions) section is a model of clarity.
  
• A useful American site is the National Guideline Clearinghouse at www.guideline.gov. Sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans, the site contains more than 900 evidence–based guidelines, along with several valuable features (eg, a utility for comparing attributes of two or more guidelines side by side and syntheses of guidelines covering similar topics, highlighting areas of similarity and difference).*
  
• Want to check out what risks certain drugs pose to pregnant women? Well, send your browser in the direction of www.perinatology.com/exposures/druglist.htm. From a simple list system, click on a drug for basic clinical information—just the sort of information that might be needed in a hurry. It is not a comprehensive resource, but a link has thoughtfully been supplied to permit a Medline search with just one click.
  
• It is always useful for a busy clinician to have services that summarise material from various journals. One such online resource can be found at www.practicalpointers.org. This service is provided free of charge (see www.practicalpointers.org/about.html). The target audience is primary care doctors, but there will be a large general interest in this offering. The site is plain and text based, and some of the papers are not that recent, but it represents a helpful resource, with links to the web based version of the original journal.
  
• The trip database at www.tripdatabase.com is certainly well worth a browse. If you are on the lookout for good quality medical information then this search engine may well be the answer. From a sparse, clutter-free home page whose main feature is the search box, it is easy to search several key resources. A list of these can be found at www.development.sequence.co.uk/tripdatabase/publications.cfm. The search looks only at words in the titles of articles, but, for a rapid literature scan, this is a handy addition to your bookmarks.
  

We welcome suggestions for websites to be included in future Netlines. Readers should contact Harry Brown at the above e-mail address.

*This item was added by the editor of BMJ USA.

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