On Doctoring MEDLINE searches, with reference librarian comments, March 2000

The question was

What is first, the mortality rate of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and secondly, what drugs constitute the most effective therapeutic options for management of the disease?

1     Pulmonary fibrosis/dt [Drug Therapy]    results=250   
2     limit 1 to (human and english language and yr=1991-2000)    results= 143   
3     Pulmonary fibrosis/mo,dt [Mortality, Drug Therapy]    results= 294   
4     limit 3 to (human and english language and yr=1991-2000)    results= 182   
5     limit 4 to latest update    results= 3   

Reference Librarian comments

Good job. I was following your thinking happily, until set #3, when I wished that you had selected ONLY mortality as a subheading. But, you were using MEDLINE with reasonable effectiveness (I'm glad you were using MeSH terms nicely, and with their associated subheadings, and doing the "limits") --- and thanks for participating in the assignment.

I usually "explode" the terms, and I frequently use the "focus" feature. I decided to do the search "my way" (see below) -- where I'd be looking at the results of set #3 for the drug therapy articles, and the results of set #6 for the mortality idea.

Medline 1991 to January 2000

#
Search History
Results
1
exp *Pulmonary fibrosis/dt [Drug Therapy]
113
2
limit 1 to ebm reviews
0
3
limit 1 to review articles
14
4
limit 3 to (human and english language)
10
5
exp *pulmonary fibrosis/mo
16
6
limit 5 to (human and english language)
16