Everything you wanted to know about search filters and what they mean for CareSearch: what are they, how do we create them and how are they used?

1. Everything you wanted to know about
search filters and what they mean for
CareSearch:
what are they, how do we create them and how are
they useful?

2. What is a search filter?

3. "Search filters" are evidence based literature search
strategies, developed using an explicit methodology and
tested using a gold standard test comparison study
design. They provide a standardised, systematic search
with a known level of performance.

4. What does a search filter look
like?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=search&term=
advance+care+planning[mh]+OR+attitude+to+death[mh]+OR+bereavement[mh]+OR+terminal+care[
mh]+OR+hospices[mh]+OR+life+support+care[mh]+OR+palliative+care[mh]+OR+terminally+ill[mh]+
OR+death[mh:noexp]+OR+palliat*[Text+Word]+OR+hospice*[Text+Word]+OR+terminal+care[Text+W
ord]+OR+1049-9091[journal]+OR+1472-684X[journal]+OR+1357-6321[journal]+OR+1536-
0539[journal]+OR+0825-8597[journal]+OR+1557-7740[journal]+OR+1552-4264[journal]+OR+1478-
9523[journal]+OR+1477-030X[journal]+OR+0749-1565[journal]+OR+0742-969X[journal]+OR+1544-
6794[journal]+OR+0941-4355[journal]+OR+1873-6513[journal]+OR+0145-7624[journal]+OR+1091-
7683[journal]+OR+0030-2228[journal]+OR+
((advance+care+plan*[text+word]+OR+attitude+to+death[text+word]+OR+bereavement[text+word]+O
R+terminal+care[text+word]+OR+life+supportive+care[text+word]+OR+terminally+ill[text+word]+OR+
palliat*[text+word]+OR+hospice*[text+word]+OR+1049-9091[journal]+OR+1472-
684X[journal]+OR+1357-6321[journal]+OR+1536-0539[journal]+OR+0825-8597[journal]+OR+1557-
7740[journal]+OR+1552-4264[journal]+OR+1478-9523[journal]+OR+1477-030X[journal]+OR+0749-
1565[journal]+OR+0742-969X[journal]+OR+1544-6794[journal]+OR+0941-4355[journal]+OR+1873-
6513[journal]+OR+0145-7624[journal]+OR+1091-7683[journal]+OR+0030-
2228[journal])+NOT+Medline[sb])+AND+English[lang]

5. Why do we need search filters?
Characteristics of ideal search
• Open access (no registration)
• Pre written (easy)
• One click (fast)
• Retrieves what we need
and excludes what we
don’t (accurate)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25031050@N06/3292307605/

6. From this
to this
with simple clicks

7. CareSearch and Flinders
Filters search filters
• Palliative care
• Heart failure
• Lung cancer
• Residential aged care
• Dementia
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
• Primary health care
• Bereavement (under development)
http://www.caresearch.com.au
http://www.flinders.edu.au/clinical-change/research/flinders-filters

8. Other organisations creating
or publishing Search Filters
• McMaster University Health Information Research
Unit
• PubMed Clinical Queries
• Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
• The InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group
Search Filter Resource

10. Search filter development
process
• Takes 6-9 months
• Involves team: expert advisory group, manager,
librarian/researcher(s), web technicians
• Is transparent, validated, documented and
reproducible

11. Why use a search filter?
• An “evidence based" search
= known effectiveness
• Benefits
– Saves time
– Increases likelihood of quality retrievals
– Removes individual search burden
– Embeds technical expertise

12. Application of the search filter
The filter:
• can be used to build specific topic searches (and
alerts)
• can be used to build your own search
• can target highest level of evidence and/or free full
text information (PubMed translation)
• can restrict results to English language information

13. What are the limits of a search
filter?
• effectiveness is subject to the quality of titles, abstracts and
MeSH headings in PubMed
• not all relevant and useful literature is found in PubMed
• there is no such thing as a perfect search
• building your own search requires some knowledge of the
search process for best results

14. It’s all about evidence …

15. Evidence
http://www.flickr.com/photos/focalplane/229880631/

16. …and knowledge translation (KT)
• Knowledge to Action Framework underpins the CareSearch project
• Evidence and KT guide decision making and processes
• Aim is to maximise the likelihood that evidence will be used.

18. Search filters on the CareSearch
site
• In Finding and Using Evidence -> Searching for evidence -> Palliative Care
PubMed Searches
• In Finding and Using Evidence -> Searching for evidence -> Using search filters
• In Clinical Evidence -> Patient Management (e.g. Appetite Problems)
• In Clinical Evidence -> Specific diseases (e.g. Dementia)
• In Hubs, e.g. Professional Groups -> RAC Hub -> Literature and Resources

19. Search filters – leading research
• See Flinders Filters for details of all filters projects and list of publications.