LactMed: new database on drugs and lactation

LactMed: A New Database on Drugs and Lactation from the National Library of Medicine

LactMed, a free online database with information on drugs and lactation, is one of the newest additions to the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) TOXNET system, a Web-based collection of resources covering toxicology, chemical safety, and environmental health.

Geared to the healthcare practitioner and nursing mother, LactMed contains over 450 drug records. It includes information such as maternal levels in breast milk, infant levels in blood, potential effects in breastfeeding infants and on lactation itself, the American Academy of Pediatrics category indicating the level of compatibility of the drug with breastfeeding, and alternate drugs to consider. References are included, as is nomenclature information, such as the drug’s Chemical Abstract Service’s (CAS) Registry number and its broad drug class.

LactMed was developed by pharmacist who is an expert in this subject area. Three other recognized authorities serve as the database’s scientific review panel. Ancillary resources, such as a glossary of terms related to drugs and lactation, and breastfeeding links are also offered.

LactMed can be searched together with TOXNET’s other databases in a multi-database environment, to obtain other relevant information about drugs. As a work in progress, LactMed will continue to expand with additional drugs and be enhanced with other substances, such as industrial chemicals and radiation.

Notice for PubMed saved searches...

My NCBI Saved Searches and RSS feeds that were created using a date selected from the old PubMed® Limits screen should be recreated as these old limits are no longer working. Recreate your searches using date limits from the new Limits screen (and delete the old searches). Searchers are reminded that updates are, by definition, citations for recent publications that are new to PubMed and will not include citations for articles published before September 1997. Therefore, date limits are not recommended for strategies used to create My NCBI updates or RSS feeds.

For more information, see the NLM Technical Bulletin.

New Search and Display options in the Journals Database

The default displays for Entrez PubMed, Journals, MeSH, and the NLM Catalog for search results that retrieve a single item will change from the Summary display to an expanded view. The view will change to Abstract for PubMed, Full for Journals and MeSH, and Expanded for the NLM Catalog.

To check this out in PubMed, here's two titles that you can try on the query line:

killer pop machines
does pizza protect against cancer

Notice that PubMed goes right to the abstract display instead of the normal summary display.

Last author option added to PubMed

The 'Last Author' feature appears in two places:
Sort By Menu Selection
Single Citation Matcher option

You can also search for 'last author' from the query line by following this syntax:
varmus h [lastau]

For more information, see the NLM Technical Bulletin.

Tutorial on evaluating Internet Health Information

MedlinePlus now features a tutorial on the topic of teaching people how to evaluate information for accuracy and authority. Evaluating Internet Health Information is slide show (approximately 16 minutes long) which runs automatically but also can be paused and stepped through slide-by-slide.

Take a look!

For more information, see the NLM Technical Bulletin.

Skill Kit: Truncation in PubMed

If you need to brush up on truncation in PubMed, then this skill kit from the National Library of Medicine will do the trick.

It highlights how truncation works and provides examples. Especially important is a discussion of when to utilize truncation and when not to.

In case you ever used the search tag [ab] ...

The [ab] search tag has been discontinued in PubMed. But don't worry! To search titles and abstracts (plus other fields), use [tw] or [textword]. To search only the Title and Abstract fields, use [tiab] or [title/abstract].

Check out the PubMed Help Search Field Descriptions and Tags for information about other ways to use 'field qualification' or 'search tags'.

For more information, see the NLM Technical Bulletin.

MeSH Video

The National Library of Medicine has produced a video on MeSH. Branching out: the MeSH Vocabulary is 12 minute introduction to the Medical Subject Headings - the development, structure and use of this remarkable controlled vocabulary.

If you're a MEDLINE user and have wondered about ways to make your searches more efficient and effective, take a look at this video.

For more information, see the NLM Technical Bulletin.

Library 101 at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

This very cool online tutorial teaches some basic library research skills and gives an introduction to the services available at the Cushing / Whitney Medical Library. You will learn how to locate journal articles (online or print), how to locate books (online or print), how to order materials from other libraries, and more! This tutorial also includes 11 video demos.

Check it out!

MEDLINE citation counts by year of publication

This is a really interesting chart that gives citation counts in MEDLINE by:

• Total citations by year
• Number of citations published in the US by year
• Percentage of citations published in the US by year

Take a look!