The NHS databases are changing...

The interface we all use for searching the NHS databases such as Medline, PsychInfo or the British Nursing Index is changing.

HDAS (Healthcare Databases Advance Search) has been redeveloped by NICE with the plan to make it easier to use, more stable and reliable, and easier to update with any future technological changes.

The change over is due in October, but NICE have said they will retain the older interface "for a few weeks" to run along side the new one to give users a chance to become familiar with the new version (and to give NHS Libraries a chance to update all their training materials!)

If you have any saved searches, you will be able to migrate them into the new interface as long as they were created before the 12th of September. We would advise not creating any searches you plan to keep after this date until the new interface has gone live.

Below is a screenshot of the new interface. It brings together things that were on different screens and puts them all together on a single page. 

The HDAS interface will offer new features including the ability to export more records, more consistency and flexibility with thesaurus searching, more fields displayed in the results page and saved results that stay saved after you exit (unlike the current clipboard feature). It should also be more reliable.

We will be publicising the change over once we have a definitive date. If you would like to try out the beta version you can find it here http://beta-hdas.nice.org.uk/ (NHS OpenAthens password required)

Web site of the month: Understanding health research A tool for making sense of health studies

Understanding Health Research is a tool designed to help you understand and review published health research to decide how dependable and relevant a piece of research is.

www.understandinghealthresearch.org

The tool, using a series of questions about the study, allows you to examine specific types of research, and helps you to understand what the answers to those questions mean for the quality of the research.

Once you have been through the questions, you can add any notes you wish and save (or email) the outcome as a .PDF document which lists all the responses to the questions.

The site also features other useful critical appraisal resources including a useful information section which includes a basic introduction to the scientific concepts involves (e.g. sampling and populations, sources of bias or correlation and causation). There are also links to other critical appraisal tools and research that has already been appraised, as well as to other sites to help you better understand scientific research.

Understanding Health Research is a really useful site allowing you to make a quick assessment of the quality of a piece research (even if you do not know much about critical appraisal) as well as providing other critical appraisal resources. Very highly recommended.

August bank holiday closure

The Libraries will be unstaffed on Monday the 29th of August for the bank holiday.

Access will still be available for registered members via our swipe card system at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries (just don't forget to bring your library card!), but Isebrook Library will be closed.

We reopen as normal on Tuesday the 30th at all of our sites.

New books and journals added to Clinical Key

Elsevier have added new electronic books and journals to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals

• Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology (2011 to present)
• Journal of Coloproctology (2013 to present)
• Journal of Optometry (2008 to present)

Books

• Abdominal Imaging (Sahani, Dushyant) 2nd ed
• CT and MRI of the Whole Body (Haaga, John) 6th ed
• Dermatology: An Illustrated Colour Text (Gawkrodger, David) 6th ed
•  Musculoskeletal Physical Examination: An Evidence-Based Approach (Malanga, Gerard) 2nd ed New to CK 
• Neuroradiology: The Requisites (Nadgir, Rohini) 4th ed

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:

• 1,400 topic pages
• Over 600 electronic journals 
• Over 1000 electronic books
• 850 First Consult monographs
• 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
• 300 + Procedures Consult videos
• 15,000 patient education handouts
• 2.2 million images
• You can find a full content list here

To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Web site of the month: Qwant - an interesting alternative to Google

Qwant is a European search engine alternative. Like DuckDuckGo (another favourite of ours), and unlike other search engines such as Google, Qwant does not track your activity or trap you in a filter bubble (where you see results based on your previous search history and clicks, rather than those that are most relevant).

When you search Qwant your results are presented in 3 columns tagged Web, News and Social (social media like Twitter). You can also filter your results to just include images or videos, or for shopping or music using the buttons on the left.

www.qwant.com

You are also able to create a free account and set lots of preferences, including having a list of favourite web sites which can act as a start page (these act like bookmarks and can be accessed from anywhere when you sign in with your account).

Qwant has other useful features including:

• Opening results in a new tab so you retain your list of search results
• Searching options like phrase or title searching, excluding search terms or limiting to a particular file type
• Qwant Lite has minimal graphics on display making it ideal for mobile devices and where there is a slower internet connection
• Qwick which easily allows you to search the content of a particular site through some clever shortcuts
• Boards which allows you to share content like pictures, videos, websites and even your own text
• Qwant Junior: a more heavily filtered search aimed at 6 - 13 year olds, with an education tab which displays results from recognised educational sources 

Qwant has enough interesting features to make it an alternative to Google and other more mainstream search engines. It's approach to privacy and searching mean you get results based more on your search criteria than your previous activities and we think it is well worth a look.

The Researcher

Available online now

The Researcher is an open access (i.e. free) online magazine, produced by, and aimed at the research community in the NHS. It is published by Health Education England, the NHS National Institute for Health Research and the North West R&D team.

The first issue features articles on

• careers in health research
• the benefits to your career of being a research participant 
• an "agony aunt" answering research questions
• what it is like to be a researcher
• and more

For anyone interested in health care research, this title is well worth a look

Get an introduction to what we can offer you in our new promo video

Regular readers may recall a while ago we blogged about the filming that was taking place in the libraries. Our two student film makers both completed promotional videos for the Library Service and we are very pleased with the results.

We have uploaded the first video to our YouTube channel. Keep an eye out for the second one which will feature later in the year.

This video will give you a glimpse of who we are and what we can do to support NGH and NHFT staff in practice and education.

New books and journal added to Clinical Key

Elsevier have added new electronic books and a journal to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals

• Journal of Cancer Research and Practice (2014 to present)

Books

• 2017 Intravenous Medications (Gahart, Betty) 33rd ed
• Brocklehurst’s Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology (Fillit, Howard) 8th ed
• Brown’s Atlas of Regional Anesthesia (Farag, Ehab) 5th ed
• Fetal and Neonatal Physiology (Polin, Richard) 5th ed
• Instant Work-ups: A Clinical Guide to Medicine (O’Connell, Theodore) 2nd ed
• Orthopedic Physical Assessment (Magee, David) 6th ed New to CK
• Weir & Abrahams’ Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy – formerly Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy (Spratt, Jonathan) 5th ed
• Weedon’s Skin Pathology Essentials (Johnston, Ronald) 2nd ed

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:

• 1,400 topic pages
• Over 600 electronic journals 
• Over 1000 electronic books
• 850 First Consult monographs
• 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
• 300 + Procedures Consult videos
• 15,000 patient education handouts
• 2.2 million images
• You can find a full content list here

To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Stocking up on holiday reading? Buying a new shed? Find out how your Amazon purchases could help the Library

Buying the latest bestseller for the beach? Planning a new revamp in the garden? Treating yourself to a new tablet for your holiday?

If you're an Amazon customer you can help our budget go a little bit further just by clicking a link before you start shopping.

By clicking on the "buy it now" link in our catalogue, on our web site (or from this blog), a percentage of the price of anything you buy will come to us, all at no additional cost to you.

It doesn't matter if you are buying a book, clothes, a barbecue, music downloads or something expensive like a lawnmower or new computer, we will get a percentage of the purchase price.

The tracking ID will stay on your computer for 24 hours, so anything you purchase from Amazon in that time will automatically be included.

"What's the catch?" you may ask. There isn't one.

Clicking on the link doesn't change what you pay to Amazon, and we can't see what you have bought.

Clicking the link just means we get some money back which we can then invest in the library service to help make what we do go a little further.

So please, if you are going to be shopping with Amazon, help us at the same time as you engage in a little retail therapy, and use our Buy It Now link to send a little of Amazon's profits our way.

Web site of the month: Disclosure UK

A rather different site than normal this month. Disclosure UK is produced by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and is a move towards increasing the transparency in the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and health professionals. You can find more about the initiative and an introductory video on the web site.

The site contains a large database of payments or benefits in kind that have been made by 109 pharmaceutical companies in the UK to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals (approximately 70% of professionals have agreed to have their details disclosed).

The database can be searched via the site and you can specify organisations or individuals. You can also download the entire data set for free.

Disclosure UK is a step forward in public understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and the public sector.

Happy birthday NHS!

The NHS was founded 68 years ago today. It has seen a huge amount of change and innovation throughout its history.

To find out more about the history and development of the NHS the Nuffield Trust have an interactive timeline, which runs from the Beverage report in 1942 to the present day.

NHS Choices also have a history of the NHS from 1948 to today and the BBC have a guide to how Britain built the NHS

The People's History of the NHS site has a virtual NHS musesum with galleries of images covering a wide variety of topics. They also have an encyclopedia with related articles.

There is also a great public information film from 1948 on the benefits of the new NHS called Your Very Good Health which is available on YouTube.

Anenurin Bevan, Minister of Health, on the first day of the National Health Service, 5 July 1948 at Park Hospital, Davyhulme, near Manchester

New books and journals added to Clinical Key

Elsevier have added new electronic books and journals to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals

• Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases (2011 to present)
• Journal of Clinical & Translational Endocrinology (2014 to present)
• Journal of Clinical and Translational Endocrinology: Case Reports (2015 to present)
• Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice (2015 to present)
• Journal of Physiotherapy (2011 to present)

Books

• Clinical Cardiac Pacing, Defibrillation and Resynchronization Therapy (Ellenbogen, Kenneth) 5th ed
• Ferri’s Clinical Advisor 2017 (Ferri, Fred)
• Green’s Operative Hand Surgery (Wolfe, Scott) 7th ed
• Immunology for Medical Students (Helbert, Matthew) 3rd ed
• Medical Physiology (Boron, Walter) 3rd ed
• Musculoskeletal Imaging: Case Review Series (Yu, Joseph) 3rd ed
• Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations: Digestive System: Part I – Upper Digestive Tract (Reynolds, James) 2nd ed New to CK
• Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations: Digestive System: Part II – Lower Digestive Tract (Reynolds, James) 2nd ed New to CK
• Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations: Digestive System: Part III – Liver, Biliary Tract, and Pancreas (Reynolds, James) 2nd ed New to CK
• Obstetrics: Normal and Problem Pregnancies (Gabbe, Steven) 7th ed
• Sabiston Textbook of Surgery (Townsend, Courtney) 20th ed

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:

• 1,400 topic pages
• Over 600 electronic journals 
• Over 1000 electronic books
• 850 First Consult monographs
• 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
• 300 + Procedures Consult videos
• 15,000 patient education handouts
• 2.2 million images
• You can find a full content list here

To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.