Article Figures & Data
Tables
- Table 1
Our Filters for Family Medicine/General Practice Translated for Different Databases
Filter Database Sensitive Filter Specific Filter PubMed (“family”[all fields] OR physician*[all fields] OR practice*[tw] OR “primary care”[all fields] OR “Primary Health Care”[mh] OR primary[tw] OR general pract*[tiab] OR gp[tiab] OR gps[tiab]) (“Primary Health Care”[mh] OR “primary care”[all fields] OR “Physicians, Family”[mh] OR general pract*[all fields] OR “family”[ad] OR family pract*[all fields] OR family physician*[tw]) Ovid (MEDLINE/ Embase) (family.af. OR physician$.af. OR practice$.mp. OR primary care.af. OR exp Primary Health Care/ OR primary.mp. OR general pract$.af. OR gp.tw. OR gps.tw.) (exp Primary Health Care/ OR primary care.af. OR exp Physicians, Family/ OR general pract$.af. OR family.in. OR family pract$.af. OR family physician$.mp.) Embase.com (family OR physician* OR practice*:de,it,lnk,ab,ti OR ‘primary care’ OR ‘Primary Health Care’/exp OR primary:de,it,lnk,ab,ti OR (general NEXT/1 pract*) OR gp:ab,ti OR gps:ab,ti) (‘Primary Health Care’/exp OR ‘primary care’ OR (general NEXT/1 pract*) OR family:ad OR (family NEXT/1 pract*) OR (family NEXT/1 physician*):de,it,lnk,ab,ti) Cochrane (“family” OR physician* OR practice*:ti,ab,kw,pt OR “primary care” OR [mh “Primary Health Care”] OR “primary”:ti,ab,kw,pt OR general pract*:ab,ti OR “gp”:ab,ti OR “gps”:ab,ti) ([mh “Primary Health Care”] OR “primary care” OR [mh “Physicians, Family”] OR general pract* OR family pract* OR family physician*:ti,ab,kw,pt) Notes: For easier copying and pasting of the search strings, the filters (along with field codes) are provided in the Supplemental Appendix as plain text.
- Table 2
Performance of Our Filters Compared With That of Other Published Filters for Family Medicine/ General Practice
Our Filters Other Published Filters Standard Useda Sensitive Filter Specific Filter Primary Health Care Search Filter4 Jelercic et al7 Glanville et al6 Gill et al5 High Sensitivity Gill et al5 Balanced Gill et al5 High Specificity Review Sensitivity, % 100.0 90.7 81.4 46.5 95.3 95.3 93.0 88.4 Specificity, % 69.2 97.9 99.0 94.4 77.0 61.0 99.1 99.5 Reference Sensitivity, % 95.4 83.9 65.9 78.0 84.3 85.9 68.9 57.0 Specificity, % 69.5 94.8 96.3 89.4 89.4 47.6 96.7 98.6 Questionnaire Sensitivity, % 97.4 96.0 81.4 87.4 97.0 96.2 92.2 78.0 Specificity, % 89.5 99.3 99.0 97.8 96.1 84.9 99.4 99.8 Overall Sensitivity, % 96.8 90.3 80.8 81.9 92.3 91.9 83.7 70.9 Specificity, % 74.9 97.4 98.3 94.3 83.6 65.0 98.7 99.4 ↵a Review: created during the screening process of a family medicine–relevant systematic review. Reference: created by 2 independent reviewers (D.H.J.P. and F.A.L.). Questionnaire: created by sending an e-mail to the list of the Cochrane Primary Health Care Field.
Additional Files
Supplemental Appendix
Supplemental Appendix
Files in this Data Supplement:
- Supplemental data: Appendix - PDF file
The Article in Brief
Development and Validation of Search Filters to Identify Articles on Family Medicine in Online Medical Databases
David H. J. Pols , and colleagues
Background Physicians and researchers in family medicine often need to find relevant articles in online medical databases. For example, many physicians use databases to obtain biomedical information for clinical practice, however, the enormous volume and diversity of the available literature makes this a challenging process. A search filter may help improve the efficiency and quality of such searches. This study develops and validates search filters to identify research studies relevant to family medicine.
What This Study Found Researchers created and validated two highly sensitive and specific search filters. The specific search filter, which has a specificity of 97 percent and a sensitivity of 90 percent was developed to help family physicians find answers to clinical questions at the point of care when time is limited, providing the physician with references that are relevant, but with a small risk of missing articles. In contrast, the sensitive search filter, which has a sensitivity of 97 percent and a specificity of 75 percent, provides considerable efficiency while avoiding missing relevant articles and may be helpful to researchers conducting systematic reviews.
