A Primer: Basic PubMed Searching for Pharmacists

Electronic database searching has become more prevalent, especially with the proliferation of Internet full-text databases. PubMed provides free access to MEDLINE, which is the largest biomedical database, which provides over 14 million citations since the mid-1960s. This resource is accessible free through the Internet and indexes over 4,800 medical journals. PubMed certainly has implications for drug usage and research, thus it is important for pharmacists to be able to proficiently search this database. Regardless of the types of pharmacists' daily responsibilities, (eg, compounding, sterile products, clinical, management) PubMed is a very useful database to locate information. This article provides a primer for pharmacists (and pharmacy students) regarding PubMed searching and discusses its most practical aspects. Not every function of PubMed can be discussed or illustrated. Major topics discussed are sidebar functions, searching MeSH terms, basic searching, limitations, and some helpful hints specifically for pharmacists. The importance and usefulness of PubMed functions and use resulting in a competent search are strictly the authors' assessment. Because PubMed is constantly evolving, functions and/or formats may have been added or changed since this writing.