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The Graduate Health & Life Sciences Research Library at Georgetown University Medical Center

Evidence-Based Medicine Resource Guide

The evidence-based medicine resource guide will introduce users to the concept, process, and application of EBM. Additionally, it will provide users with EBM resources and research tools available to them through DML and the Web.

What are Point-of-Care Tools?

Point-of-care tools are those research and reference resources that a clinician can utilize immediately at the point-of-care with a patient. They are often easy to use and contain filtered information. Most of the evidence-based point-of-care tools include levels of evidence, rating scales or grade recommendations as well as citations back to the original research studies, systematic reviews, or guidelines.

Point-of-Care Databases

Note: please see the "Books & eBooks" page for links to our electronic textbook collections (excellent for answering background information). Additionally, please see the "Drug Information" page on this guide for links to drug databases that can be used at the point-of-care.

Define: Filtered Source

Secondary literature, or “filtered” literature, is synthesized and evaluated evidence derived from primary literature. In secondary literature, critical appraisal of the literature has already been done for you—which is a great time saver. Because the critical appraisal of the individual articles has been done for you, filtered literature is appropriate to use for clinical decision-making at the point-of-care. In addition to saving time, filtered literature will often provide a more definitive answer than individual research reports.

Practice Guidelines