Closure of Evidence Search, Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (HDAS) and My Journals websites - advice for NHS library users

Answer

NICE decommissioned Evidence Search, Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (HDAS) and the MyJournals websites on 31 March 2022.

Evidence Search was available to all as a means to search across a range of health evidence sources simultaneously. It was focussed on guidance and secondary sources such as Cochrane Systematic Reviews.

Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (HDAS) was an interface built for the NHS that allowed users to search across several health literature databases (such as Medline, CINAHL, Embase etc) using a consistent tool. It was predominantly used by those with more complex searches.

MyJournals was an A-Z list of ejournals available to NHS staff.

Alternative arrangements have been made available that do not directly replicate these sites but that offer ways to carry out similar search tasks.

For quick searches and rapid access to journals

The Knowledge & Library Hub is a great place to start for NHS staff searching for evidence. You should login before searching using your NHS OpenAthens username and password to ensure you see the right resources linked to your Trust. There are convenient links at the foot of the main search page to key resources such as the Royal Marsden Manual and BMJ Best Practice.

The KLH search box will return results from journals, some ebooks and a range of secondary sources. If you already know the specific article you want to read then add several words from the title and you should either get a link to the full article or to request it from the university collections. It will likely also offer you other related articles.

There are two options if you want to look through journals by title rather than search for specific articles.

Journals Browse will open a tool called Browzine that provides a tailored experience for reading journals. If you are logged in you will be taken straight to the ejournals available to you from anywhere. King’s College Hospital staff have additional access to an App for Browzine.

Journals A-Z list offers an experience similar to that previously offered in MyJournals with a directory of journals.

A further option is to search using Trip Database. This is an website designed for rapid access to medical research with a particular focus on guidance and evidence based sources. It has a convenient PICO search mode. You can log in using NHS OpenAthens for the full Pro version including links to full text journals where available.

Book on our Rapid Acccess to Evidence-Based Resources skills session to learn more about these tools.

For in depth searching of literature databases (Medline, CINAHL etc)

You can carry out simple searches on the healthcare literature by using the Knowledge & Library Hub but where you need to carry out a more thorough and reportable search you should use the databases themselves. Links are provided from the Hub to each of these. You may have to use different search interfaces depending on which database you need to search.

Databases are available via the following interfaces:

Ovid – AMED, EMBASE, EMCARE, MEDLINE, HMIC, Social Policy & Practice

Proquest – BNI, PsycINFO (+ MEDLINE by opening one of the others and picking Change Databases from the menu)

Ebsco – CINAHL (+ MEDLINE by going into CINAHL and selecting Choose Databases

Experienced HDAS users will find Ovid the most familiar feeling interface but the same principles for good searching apply on all of them – bookable sessions are available on Healthcare databases to build your skills.

NICE emailed all users with information about the closure of HDAS. If you have alerts set up on searches you may find these videos from an experienced NHS librarian on transferring your searches to Ovid or to Ebsco / Proquest useful.

If you are searching across multiple interfaces you may wish to use reference management software to manage your results. You can read more about these on this guide. There are various tools some of which do not require a paid licence. Access to Refworks is available to all King’s College London Alumni and by request for NHS staff – please contact library@kcl.ac.uk for more details