Looking for evidence to support your research, answer clinical questions or to support your service delivery?

We can help you!

We are skilled at searching healthcare resources, such as NICE Evidence, medical and nursing databases.   We can save you time, by quickly finding information on your behalf,  helping you find the evidence and publications you need to support your decision making and research.

If you work for East Cheshire NHS Trust take advantage of our free searching services, available to all East Cheshire NHS Trust hospital and community staff.

More information about services and contact details can be found on our website here: Outreach Services

Long term NSAIDs are associated with lower colorectal cancer risk, study shows

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Taking low dose aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) continuously in the long term is associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer, a Danish case-control study has shown.

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, analysed data on drug use, comorbid conditions, and history of colonoscopy from Danish prescription and patient registries.

Behind the Headlines

Read all about it!

Heard the latest health news stories reported in the press? Do you want to know if there really is a “diet” that will slow mental decline? Does eating red meat affect fertility? Is reading work e mail outside work time good for you?

Follow some of the latest items reported in the media and see the science behind them at “Behind the Headlines”  on the NHS Choices website. The stories are broken down to see how the evidence stacks up and to give a balanced view on the themes reported, plus there are additional useful links.

Library annual survey extended for a week

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If you haven’t yet completed the Library and Knowledge Service’s annual survey, you still have time! We’ve extended the closing date for a week, so the new closing date is now 5pm on the 31st July 2015.

We’d like to hear any and all feedback from you on what you think of library services, how we can improve them and what resources you think are most useful to you.

Remember, our services are driven by you, the user, and without your help we can’t make them the best possible!

Glitazones are associated with reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease

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Patients who take the antidiabetes drugs rosiglitazone or pioglitazone have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than patients taking other drugs for diabetes, a study published in PLoS Medicine indicates.

Bariatric surgery is linked to more diabetes remission than lifestyle intervention alone, study finds

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Two thirds of obese patients with type 2 diabetes who had a gastric bypass did not need any diabetes drugs three years after their operation, a US study published in JAMA Surgery has shown. The research also found that a third of patients who had less invasive gastric banding showed remission of their diabetes.

Evidence is insufficient to recommend e-cigarettes for quitting, US committee concludes

There are not enough data on the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes to determine whether the devices can help smokers quit, the US Preventive Services Task Force has concluded.1

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The Task Force, which makes recommendations on the effectiveness of preventive healthcare services such as screening, counselling, and use of drugs, issued its draft evaluation of tobacco smoking cessation in adults and pregnant women on 5 May.

Homeopathy is not an effective treatment for any health condition, report concludes

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A large review by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council has reported that homeopathy is not an effective treatment for any health condition. It cautioned that “people who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence.”

The council, the country’s highest medical research body, conducted an extensive assessment of scientific evidence to develop a position statement on the use of homeopathy. The report incorporated an evaluation of more than 1800 papers, including systematic reviews, published guidelines, and information provided by homeopathy advocacy groups. The analysis identified a total of 225 studies that compared a homeopathic treatment group with a control group and therefore met criteria to be further examined for effectiveness.

Behind the Headlines added to Understanding Evidence

Behind the Headlines part of NHS Choices, provides an unbiased and evidence-based analysis of health stories that make the news.

The service is intended for both the public and health professionals, and endeavours to:

• explain the facts behind the headlines and give a better understanding of the science that makes the news,
• provide an authoritative resource for GPs that they can rely on when talking to patients, and
• become a trusted resource for journalists and others involved in the dissemination of health news.

Behind the Headlines is the brainchild of Sir Muir Gray, who set up the service in 2007.

This feature has now been added to our Understanding Evidence page, to enable a greater understanding of the health stories reported in the news.

BMJ: How to read a paper

14 January 2013

How to read a paper

A big ‘thank you’ to the BMJ who have identified a number of very useful articles that explain how to read and interpret different kinds of research papers:

• Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research) Trisha Greenhalgh, Rod Taylor
• Papers that summarise other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analyses) Trisha Greenhalgh
• Papers that tell you what things cost (economic analyses) Trisha Greenhalgh
• Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests Trisha Greenhalgh
• Papers that report drug trials Trisha Greenhalgh
• Statistics for the non-statistician. II: “Significant” relations and their pitfalls Trisha Greenhalgh
• Statistics for the non-statistician Trisha Greenhalgh
• Assessing the methodological quality of published papers Trisha Greenhalgh
• Getting your bearings (deciding what the paper is about) Trisha Greenhalgh
• The Medline database Trisha Greenhalgh

Library launches new page: Understanding Evidence

If critical appriasal, referencing and ‘p’ values aren’t exactly top of your list of strengths, then take a look at the latest page to be added to the Library website – Understanding Evidence.

Having good study skills and knowing where to look for evidence based information is essential when it comes to reducing the hassle of assignments and improving your CPD experience.  This page has lots of useful links where you can find the necessary help you need.

Take a look at:

http://www.netvibes.com/ecn-stafflibrary#Understanding_Evidence