We believe that one of the unique features of this program is the Automatic Literature Search . This program was developed by our departmental librarian, Rita Shaughnessy in collaboration with librarians at the University of Toronto. The librarians have constructed a literature search strategy for every topic in the program. Whenever you access a topic, by clicking on search link, this search will automatically be done on Medline via PubMed within seconds of your click. This allows you to identify any articles on the topic that are important that have been published since the last dated search was done.
Every topic records the date of the last search on which the information is based.
This feature allows you to keep the critically appraised information that you use right up to date. You can find the actual search strategy recorded on the PubMed search template by clicking on the Details button on the search results page. We hope that you will find helpful the concept of providing the patient with critically appraised information to consider and then returning to you to decide which strategy is best for them. In very controversial areas such as PSA testing or HRT, this approach definitely saves you time and makes the patient feel that they had more say in the decision making process. Patient involvement in decision-making has been demonstrated to lead to higher patient satisfaction with their health care and also makes it more likely that they will follow the decision that has been made.