NHS Evidence changes go live

The NHS Evidence sites have a new look to go with changes to content and functionality.

To access electronic Journals or search the databases (Medline, CINAHL etc) you now need to click Journals and Databases. You can always access them via NewhamCat or the old http://www.library.nhs.uk/ link will continue to redirect you. Please note NHS Evidence has a separate login system that does not work with NHS Athens. Generally if you always look for where it says Athens Login you should be alright.

New on NHS Evidence are NICE Pathways and A-Z Topics.

NICE Pathways offers a visual approach to NICE Guidance not dissimilar to the (no longer available) Map of Medicine. They describe themselves as "a network of NICE information. For example, the diet pathway links up with the physical activity pathway; the COPD pathway links up with the smoking pathway. Over time, all of NICE's guidance, quality standards and related tools will be added to this network of information. For the first time you do not need to understand how NICE classifies different types of guidance to view everything NICE has said on a particular topic."

A - Z Topics offer a concertina style presentation to offer rapid access to materials in NHS Evidence. There are sections on medicines, patient information, guidance and a general introduction (currently drawn from Clinical Knowledge Summaries).

There will be new versions of the KLS leaflets on accessing electronic resources with the revised look soon. You can always contact us with any questions related to NHS Evidence or finding information.

Worth looking at...

As previously posted the new NHS Evidence portal went live on Thursday 30th April.

You can find it at www.evidence.nhs.uk and we recommend you give it a try.

So what will you find there? Drawn from the site:

• A fast, comprehensive search function for clinical and non-clinical information
• Access to a resource collating information on new drugs to support commissioners
• A new NHS Evidence portal homepage
• Links to resources previously part of the National Library for Health.

The search tool offers you the means to carry out the kind of search you might do on a well known search engine but against a selection of high quality resources. You can enter one or more words, use "quotes marks" to search for a phrase and should get lightning fast results in return. There is a good help page.

Once you have some results there a special filters to help you narrow your search down. Or you can just add another search term in the box above your results.

The results are relevance ranked by default to promote high quality evidence and guidance to the top of the page. You should find good results in the first ten hits.

You won't find journal articles in NHS Evidence (apart from where they are included in one of the old Specialist Libraries - now known as the Specialist Collections). If you want to search the journals the system is unchanged with the A-Z MyJournals for browsing or Health Care Databases Advanced Search to carry out literature reviews. The National Library for Health website remains available for the time being (in a fetching new shade of blue).

We will be offering more information on getting the best out of NHS Evidence in the near future. In the mean time if you get confused, stuck or excited about the changes - please get in touch.

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On the Map (of Medicine)

You may have heard mutterings recently about the Map of Medicine.

The Map of Medicine is an online clinical knowledge tool that contains over 300 evidence-based clinical pathways. The Map consists of flow charts following the pathway from Primary through to Acute Care where relevant. It links out to the National Library for Health and BNF. Clicking on the accredited tick will display the strength of the evidence presented by that particular pathway.

Modified versions of some pathways are already being made available to patients via the NHS Choices website.

NHS staff in London can now access London Map of Medicine using their Athens username
and password. You can self register for this via any NHSNet computer.







Please have a look and let us know how you get on.

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