Online databases, datasets and point-of-care resources
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New! Discover the new NHS Knowledge & Library Hub: a single gateway to journals, books, databases, clinical decision support resources including NICE Guidelines, BMJ Best Practice and DynaMed, and one-click links to full-text.
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Here you'll find an A-Z list of key databases for healthcare. Some are freely available to all but for most you'll need an OpenAthens password to access the content (you can register online). Training sessions and help guides are available on many of the electronic resources.
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amber
amber contains records of published research authored by NHS staff working in Ambulance Services in England. It is managed by the Library and Knowledge Services for NHS Ambulance Services in England [LKS ASE]. |
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AMED (Athens required)
The Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) is a unique bibliographic database produced by the Health Care Information Service of the British Library. It covers a selection of journals in complementary medicine, palliative care, and several professions allied to medicine. |
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BestBETs
A searchable database of evidence-based answers to real life emergency medicine questions, with details of courses and teaching materials. |
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BMJ Best Practice (Athens required)
A point of care tool from BMJ Evidence Centre designed to support clinicians in their decision making from diagnosis to treatment. Quick start guide: how to login, download the app and get started. You can also access BMJ Best Practice from The Hub (click on 'Links to Systems & Applications' - a box in the left-hand panel of the intranet homepage). 
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BNF and BNF for Children
Official website of the British National Formularies, providing UK healthcare professionals with authoritative and practical information on the selection and clinicial use of medicines. Athens is required if not using a TRFT computer. Read our guide to accessing and using BNF/C. Having problems logging into the BNF App? If you receive an error message ('Athens password inactive') please try logging in to an alternative Athens product or go to www.openathens.net and log into Athens. Accept the terms and conditions and then try logging in to the BNF app again. |
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BNI (Athens required)
The British Nursing Index (BNI) is a bibliographic database that indexes articles from the most popular English language nursing journals published primarily in the UK. BNI is a comprehensive index covering all aspects of nursing, midwifery and community healthcare and is updated monthly. |
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CINAHL (Athens required)
The CINAHL database is a comprehensive and authoritative source of information for nurses, allied health professionals, and others interested in health care. Please see our guide to using EBSCO |
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Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS)
The NICE CKS service which provides primary care practitioners with a readily accessible summary of the current evidence base and practical guidance on best practice in respect of over 300 common and/or significant primary care presentations. |
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The Cochrane Library
Includes the 'Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews', the leading resource for systematic reviews in health care, widely accepted as the 'gold standard' resource in terms of evidence-based healthcare information, plus five further databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. |
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Critical Illness from MedicinesComplete
'Essential medicines information to support complex decision-making in critical care'. In development: a resource to guide effective treatment for adult patients in intensive care. To support the COVID-19 effort content already developed is being released now at no charge to support the NHS and MedicinesComplete users working in critical care. The complete version of Critical Illness will be published next year and available on subscription through MedicinesComplete. To login: visit the Critical Illness homepage, select 'Login', then 'Login via OpenAthens', then select 'NHS in England', then enter your Athens usersname and password. Create an Athens password/help with Athens. |
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Data sets: sources of health statistics and data
Susan Smith, Library Manager at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has collated a set of recommended data sets to support researchers. You may also be interested in our list of Covid-related data sets. |
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ental Trauma Guide (password required; contact library for details)
‘World-leading, web-based tool to evidence based dental traumatology’, developed in cooperation with University Hospital of Copenhagen and the International Association of Dental Traumatology (IADT). IADT Guidelines are still available free of charge, but the full Dental Trauma Guide is a subscription-only resource (username and password required). Includes: diagnosis, treatment planning and individual prognosis for a given case. Provides a visualisation of the IADT trauma guidelines to promote the application of treatment procedures which have been documented in clinical and experimental studies to enhance pulp and periodontal healing after trauma. Links actual treatment to the present knowledge about methods to promote wound healing. Contact library to access. |
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DynaMed (Athens required off-site)
A clinical reference tool created by physicians for physicians and other health care professionals for use at the point-of-care. With clinically-organized summaries, DynaMed balances the latest content and resources with validity, relevance and convenience. Visit our DynaMed page for more information. |
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eBooks
Visit our ebooks page to access our Proquest Ebook Central Collection of over 30,000 titles, Oxford Medicine Online, Kortext ebooks for the NHS; open access textbooks and fiction ebooks. BMA members can also access 2500 ebooks from https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-library/e-books. |
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eJournals
You can now access 7000 ejournals, plus our local ejournals all from one place, either by connecting to the Knowledge & Library Hub or from our Journals page, where you can also view a list of our print journals. |
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EMBASE (Athens required)
EMBASE is a major biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexing over 3,500 international journals in a variety of fields including drug research, pharmacology, toxicology, health policy and management, public health, occupational health and psychiatry. Please see our guide to using Ovid |
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EMCARE - Covers all nursing specialties and nursing healthcare professions. Emcare includes international coverage of allied health, education and training, development and management, midwifery, health and healthcare economics, clinical medical and healthcare social work, psychiatry and mental health, and traumatology, emergency and critical-care medicine.
Access via Ovid User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all) |
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ERIC (Education Resources Information Centre)
ERIC is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences and is the world's premier database of journal and non-journal education literature. |
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Grey Literature Collection: see National Grey Literature Collection
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Guidelines for Nurses
A directory of concise clinical guideline summaries of major primary and shared care guidelines from the UK (NICE, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), independent professional bodies, and expert-led working party groups). Additionally, European guidelines from some of the major independent professional bodies are also summarised and included. |
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HMIC (Health Management Information Consortium) - Areas covered include health management and services, social care and NHS organisation and administration.
Access via Ovid User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all) |
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Health Business Elite (Athens required)
This database provides comprehensive journal content detailing all aspects of health care administration and other non-clinical aspects of health care institution management. Topics covered include hospital management, hospital administration, marketing, human resources, computer technology, facilities management and insurance. Health Business™ Elite contains full text content from more than 480 journals. |
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International HTA Database
The international HTA database provides free access to bibliographic information about ongoing and published health technology assessments commissioned or undertaken by HTA organisations from around the world. This includes INAHTA members and non-INAHTA members. The database provides a single point of access to information that would otherwise be more difficult and time-consuming to search for on individual agency websites. INAHTA has taken on the responsibility for the production of the HTA database. This was previously done by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), University of York, England. |
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Knowledge & Library Hub
The new NHS Knowledge & Library Hub is a single gateway to journals, books, databases, clinical decision support resources including NICE Guidelines, BMJ Best Practice and DynaMed, and one-click links to full-text. Login with OpenAthens. Find out more about using the Hub. |
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Lab Tests Online
Designed for patients. 'Lab Tests Online-UK is written by practising laboratory doctors and scientists to help you understand the many clinical laboratory tests that are used in diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of disease. It is produced by the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine in collaboration with the AACC and support from the Royal College of Pathologists and the Institute of Biomedical Science'. |
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The Marsden Manual: The Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical and Cancer Nursing Procedures:
Please access from the Library page on The Hub (Corporate Services/Library & Knowledge Service). Clinical nurse experts from one of the UK’s leading centres of expertise have brought together all the latest clinical evidence nurses need to meet confidently the requirements of their demanding profession. The Manual includes over 350 evidence-based clinical procedures related to every aspect of care, from handwashing to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. |
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Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines
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Medicines Tracker
The latest information on new drugs and changes to licensed indications of medicinal products. Based on the Regional Drug and Therapeutics Centre monthly horizon scanning reports that are intended to inform NHS healthcare professionals about new products available through the NHS and significant changes to current product licences. |
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MEDLINE Complete (Athens required)
'MEDLINE Complete is a leading full-text database of biomedical and health journals, providing full text for thousands of top medical journals with cover-to-cover indexing. It is an essential research tool for doctors, nurses, health professionals and researchers'. You can access MEDLINE Complete from The NHS Knowledge & Library Hub or via My Athens. Please see our guide to using Ovid |
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National Grey Literature Collection and Grey Literature Knowledge Base
Funded by HEE, The National Grey Literature Collection holds the hard copy grey literature collection of the former North Grey Literature Service. It is collecting an increasing range of electronic Grey Literature. The collection is funded by the Health Education England and delivered by Stockport Foundation NHS Trust. |
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OT Seeker
OTseeker is a database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist you to evaluate their validity and interpretability. These ratings will help you to judge the quality and usefulness of trials for informing clinical interventions. In one database, OTseeker provides you with fast and easy access to trials from a wide range of sources. |
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Oxford Medicine Online
Access 130 titles from the collection. Login here, selecting 'Login via my institution' then 'NHS in England', followed by your Athens password (more about Athens). See our other ebook collections on our eBooks pages. |
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Ovid
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Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro)
PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It has been developed to give access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. |
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Proquest: research platform
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Proquest: ebooks
Visit our ebooks page to access our Proquest Ebook Central Collection of over 30,000 titles and more ebook collections. |
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Public Health Interventions Cost Effectiveness Database (PHICED)
PHICED is a database of bibliographic records related to public health areas. It includes cost-effectiveness studies, NICE guidance and decision tools relating to alcohol, obesity, physical activity and tobacco. It is aimed at professionals who provide or commission public health interventions. |
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PsycINFO (Athens required)
This database provides extensive international coverage of the literature on psychology and allied fields. It covers psychological practice and research as well as the related clinical, social and biological disciplines. Please see our guide to using ProQuest |
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PubMed
PubMed comprises more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. |
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Research the Headlines
This site addresses the way in which research is discussed and portrayed in the media. Each post takes recent media coverage of a piece of research as a starting point, and allows readers to get to a better understanding of what was really done, and what it might mean for them, from an expert but independent position. The blog is intended to be of interest to those with and without any training in research. |
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Retraction Watch
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The Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical and Cancer Nursing Procedures:
Please access from the Library page on The Hub (Corporate Services/Library & Knowledge Service). Clinical nurse experts from one of the UK’s leading centres of expertise have brought together all the latest clinical evidence nurses need to meet confidently the requirements of their demanding profession. The Manual includes over 350 evidence-based clinical procedures related to every aspect of care, from handwashing to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. |
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SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network)
SIGN develops evidence based clinical practice guidelines for the NHS in Scotland. |
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Social Policy and Practice
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Statistics: see Data Sets
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The Transfusion Evidence Library (Athens required)
The Transfusion Evidence Library is an information resource that provides access to evidence-based publications (Systematic Reviews, Randomised Controlled Trial and Health Economic Evaluations) on all aspects of transfusion medicine, and expert Clinical Commentaries on selected studies. |
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TRIP
The TRIP database is a free resource which aims to deliver the highest quality literature to support evidence based practice. The content includes evidence-based guidelines. Read our guide to accessing and using TRIP. |
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UK Data Service (formerly ESDS)
The UK Data Service is a comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data. Here you will find a single point of access to a wide range of secondary data including large-scale government surveys, international macrodata, business microdata, qualitative studies and census data from 1971 to 2011. |
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What Works?
What Works helps early years practitioners, teachers, school leaders, and speech and language therapists (SLTs) find the most appropriate interventions for children and young people by providing a free and easily accessible overview of the evidence base for each intervention. Although not designed for ommissioners, What Works may also be a useful reference in the commissioning process. |