Mobile medical evidence

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 53, No. 4, May 2011, Page 165 College Library
By: Karen MacDonell, PhD, MLIS Robert Melrose Judy Neill

This article is the opinion of the CPSBC Library and has not been peer reviewed by the BCMJ Editorial Board.

Versatile and efficient smartphones, such as the Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone, are being used increasingly to access clinical information. The resources on the College Library website can be view­ed on any of these mobile devices. Some products, including PubMed, BMJ Point-of-Care, Procedures Consult, and BC Clinical Practice Guidelines and Protocols, have also developed unique apps or modified their web-based versions for ease of use with smartphones. 

The link to the PubMed handheld interface is an option on the Library web page (www.cpsbc.ca/library/databases). This interface has unique abilities that simplify searching. It provides a structured search and offers natural language options that can be restricted by specific filters, such as systematic reviews or clinical queries, and links to College-subscribed e-journals where available. 

The handheld version of BMJ Point-of-Care with Epocrates (www.cpsbc.ca/library/bmj) displays seamlessly; all features for disease and drug monographs, interaction checker, and so on, are formatted for the smaller screen. 

Procedures Consult, a multimedia procedures training and reference tool in emergency medicine and anesthesia, has a handheld application in addition to its web-based format (www.cpsbc.ca/library/pda-video-audio). Access to the Procedures Consult app requires a user name and password available by contacting the College Library. 

Condensed versions of BC Clinical Practice Guidelines and Protocols are available for free to download to iPhones in addition to viewing in your browser (www.bcguidelines.ca/index.html).

In upcoming columns, we will highlight other smartphone-friendly apps that assist physicians to access medical evidence efficiently and effectively. 
—Karen MacDonell
—Robert Melrose
—Judy Neill
Library Co-Managers

Karen MacDonell, PhD, MLIS, Robert Melrose, Judy Neill. Mobile medical evidence. BCMJ, Vol. 53, No. 4, May, 2011, Page(s) 165 - College Library.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
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For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

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