The NLH Question-Answering Service is a pilot project that will examine the usefulness of such a service. Due to the pilot nature of the site the number of questions the service is limited but will expand over the course of the project. Essentially the NLH Question-Answering service seeks to answer questions that health professionals have been unable to answer for themselves. Once the NLH Question-Answering team has received the question the initial step will be an understanding of the question. Often questions are poorly worded or simply ambiguous. If there is ambiguity the requestor will be contacted and asked for further clarification. Where necessary we will re-word the question in a more structured format that will be used to formulate the search strategy. The initial search will concentrate on secondary sources as identified using the NLH Search Engine. If the question can be fully answered using these resources the search will be stopped. However, the majority of questions are likely to need additional material and in these situations two primary care sources will be used: PubMed and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register. This will be added to Healthcare Resources 2005 Internet MiniGuide. This has been added to Healthcare Resources Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:10 AM
