Here you can search both HEAL Toronto and the Rethinking AIDS web site, the most complete resource of alternative AIDS information on the internet. Take a look at search tips to better focus your searches and remember your Ctrl F keys to look for words/phrases in each page.

Medline
NLM offers PubMed and Internet Grateful Med, two free systems to search MEDLINE (for a guide to searching MEDLINE go here). They both:

• Provide an easy way to search the 11 million references and abstracts in the MEDLINE database;
• Use PubMed's retrieval engine to link to about 400 journals for full text of articles (some publishers may require a subscription) and provide pre-computed sets of relevant MEDLINE articles;
• Offer NLM's Medical Subject Headings for searching; and
• Use Loansome Doc for document delivery services (there may be local charges).

Medical Dictionaries - handy to keep one open in an extra browser window

How to Read a Paper
By Trisha Greenhalgh British Medical Journal
This is a series of articles introducing non-experts to finding medical articles and assessing their value. The author reminds us "that some (perhaps most) published articles belong in the bin, and should certainly not be used to inform practice." Ms. Greenhalgh is highly critical of drug company "reps" or "detailers"; she offers helpful advice for deconstructing drug company hype. These articles also function as a glossary of terminology (surrogate markers; accuracy, specificity, sensitivity and predictive values of tests; etc) with clear explanations and examples. Sections 6 & 7 are highly recommended:
Papers that report drug trials
Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests

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