Introduction to Health Services Research : A Self-Study Course

Module 4: Search the Literature of HSR: Databases (Page 17 of 29)
Section 1: Health Services Research Databases and Information Resources

BIOETHICSLINE/ETHX on the Web

Examine BIOETHICSLINE for articles dealing with public policy and ethical issues in health care and biomedical research (including medicine, nursing, law, biology, philosophy, religion, as well as the behavioral sciences). Some content from the popular literature is included. Content types include books newspaper articles, court decisions, bills and laws, and audiovisual materials.

As of Oct 2001, the bioethics-related, non-Index Medicus journals are indexed by Kennedy Institute of Ethics for the enhanced MEDLINE. That database is called ETHX on the Web and is available for searches at: http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/databases/.

More on BIOETHICSLINE (1973 to 2000)

• Producer: National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRCBL), Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University - http://kennedyinstitute.georgetown.edu/index.htm.
  
• Search the NRCBL resources.
  • Ethx on the Web Basic Search
  • Genetics and Ethics Basic Search
• NLM Resources
  • Merged into PubMed - 888-346-3656 or custserv@nlm.nih.gov
• Topics: Bioethics, including patient's rights, allocation of health care resources, human experimentation, animal experimentation, euthanasia and allowing to die, abortion, contraception, AIDS, mental health therapies, genetic intervention, reproductive technologies, organ transplantation, and medical worker-patient relationship. Citations come from a variety of sources including the social sciences, popular media, law, and philosophy. (More on subjects and topics (PDF))
• Currently (from 2001 onwards) book materials are available through LocatorPlus, NLM Catalog or the NLM Gateway (Bioethics Search Tips)
• Journal citations can be searched via PubMed or through the NLM Gateway
• Note: A Bioethics Subset search strategy is available in PubMed.

Exercise

1. Where are the non-Index-Medicus journals related to ethics being indexed? Visit the ETHX on the Web site (select Basic, Advanced or Boolean Search) and try a couple of searches in the ETHX database. Try searching on "philosophy of the health professions" or on "prolongation of life" or any topic from the subject list or a text word search.
2. Try another search on a topic of your choice. Is this a good site to get current information on the kinds of ethical questions that concern us today? How up-to-date is the site?

Discussion Questions

1. Can you think of any reason why it might be important to search for older records in BIOETHICSLINE even though it has ceased as a separate database?
2. Ethical issues continue to be discussed nearly daily in the news. Think of some recent events where ethical issues played a significant part of the news and do a search on that topic. Does the Bioethics database subset of Medline have relevant content that you can use? What did you find particularly useful about the database? Less useful?