Gold
standard

January 9, 2017 -- When doing medical research online, professionals do not use Google and Yahoo. Anybody can write anything on the Web. Much of that is bunk. Instead, base medical decisions on the gold standard: controlled, randomized, double-blind clinical trials.

Official sources: Cinahl, PubMed, and Medline. These are vast databases. In them resides the most authoritative medical and nursing data.

To search in them, use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), a system maintained by the National Library of Medicine, a limb of the National Institutes of Health and (ahem) the source of some funding for my advanced degree.

Do your search using MeSH terms. Here is an example of MeSH terms from my own specialty, medical informatics.

One way to select MeSH terms is with the MeSH Browser and with the MeSH on Demand service.

Best of success to you in your search!

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