Embase
Find quick, relevant answers to your biomedical questions
Section 1.
Review / Confirm understanding of your research needs
Section 1.
Your challenges & Research Needs
• Conduct systematic reviews of the literature
• Set up complex search strategies and alerts for stakeholders and departments
• Search Medline and Embase together
• Set up and distribute alerts relating to evidence-based medicine
• Access the most up to date information related to a disease that you are tracking
• Make sure that all relevant information is disseminated throughout the organization
• Monitor and track all adverse events for early and complete detection
of any and all adverse effects (signaling)
• Make sure you respond to your internal stakeholder’s request in a timely manner
Section 2.
Evidence Based Medicine / Systematic Searching
Section 2.
“How do you know if one treatment will work better than
another, or if it will do more harm than good?”
Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of primary research in human health
care and health policy, and are internationally recognized as the highest standard
in evidence-based health care.
They investigate the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment and
rehabilitation. They also assess the accuracy of a diagnostic test for a given
condition in a specific patient group and setting.
They are published online in The Cochrane Library.
Section 2.
“How do you know if one treatment will work better than
another, or if it will do more harm than good?”
Each systematic review addresses a clearly formulated question.
For example:
Can antibiotics help in alleviating the symptoms of a sore throat?
All the existing primary research on a topic that meets certain criteria is searched
for and collated, and then assessed using stringent guidelines, to establish
whether or not there is conclusive evidence about a specific treatment. The
reviews are updated regularly, ensuring that treatment decisions can be based
on the most up-to-date and reliable evidence.
Section 2.
Case Study: Embase & Evidence Based Medicine
A real example of the high risks
of NOT using Embase
Section 2.
Medicine Without Evidence
Johns Hopkins’ Tragedy: Could Librarians Have Prevented a Death?
Source: http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=17534
Section 2.
Section 2.
Section 2.
EBM Terms in Embase / Emtree
via Advanced Limits in Advanced Search
via Emtree
Section 3.
What is Embase and How it Supports Academic Institutions
Section 3.
What is Embase?
Embase is the world’s most comprehensive, intelligent biomedical research
tool, providing the drug and drug-related research community with reliable and
authoritative content, to advance new biomedical and pharmaceutical discovery.
Confidence
Find all relevant articles that may not
otherwise be found by alternative databases
Deep Biomedical Indexing
All relevant, up-to-date, biomedical
information from the research literature
Precise Retrieval
Deep and focused research through
powerful retrieval tools
Section 3.
How Embase Delivers Value…
...by including literature and information
resources in a timely manner
...by reading full-text to identify
drugs, diseases, adverse affects,
clinical trials, drug trade names etc.
Conference
proceedings
Scientific
Journals
In Press
(unpublished)
We make sure you don’t
miss any
biomedical literature
Deep indexing using own
taxonomy (EMTREE)
They only close
alternative is reading
all the articles
Very powerful
Search Environment
Good precision and
recall balance
...by enabling advanced search filters to
drill down a comprehensive search to a
relevant and manageable record set
...by allowing users to automate
searching and result management
Automation and
documentation
Section 3.1
Content
Section 3.1
Content Overview
Emtree: Biomedical thesaurus, over 60k terms
Embase: Fully indexed: Over 7,700 journals (including MEDLINE), 1950MEDLINE: 2,500 journals unique to Embase,
mapped to Embase indexing, 1950- (including MEDLINE Classic)
AIP and In Process:
Indexing added, from 2009
Embase Classic:
Digitally scanned and
re-indexed, 1947-1973
Conference Abstracts:
Indexing added, from 2009
1947
1950
And counting…
2,700 records added per day
1,000,000 records added per year
1974
2009
Section 3.1
Embase Scope & Coverage (2012)
Pharmacology & Taxicology 12%
General Clinical Medicine 11%
Genetics, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 10%
Neurology & Behavioral Medicine 8%
Microbiology & Infectious Disease 7%
Cardiology & Hematology 6%
Psychiatry & Mental Health 6%
Oncology 5%
Healthcare Policy & Management 4%
Allergy & Immunology 4%
Pediatrics 4%
Endocrinology & Metabolism 3%
Obstetrics & Gynecology 3%
Biomedical Engineering & Medical Devices 3%
Anesthesiology & Intensive Care 3%
Gastroenterology 2%
Respiratory Medicine 2%
Nephrology & Urology 2%
Dermatology 2%
Other topics 28%
Including public health, basic
biomedical science and topics
included from MEDLINE
Section 3.1
Embase vs MEDLINE – Scope
Similar overall pattern of coverage
... but with two major differences
1. Pharmacology & toxicology
Embase:
11.2% (889 titles)
MEDLINE: 8.3% (465 titles)
2. General clinical medicine
Embase:
10.5% (835 titles)
MEDLINE: 8.9% (495 titles)
Section 3.1
Embase vs MEDLINE – Searching the Difference
Section 3.1
Embase Records
Section 3.1
Embase Records
Medline on PubMed
1.0 m
800 K
600 K
400 K
200 K
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02
03
04
05
06
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10
11
Section 3.1
Embase (Active) Journals in 2012
Embase: now covers 7960 journals (20 March 2012)
Indexed at Embase (5396 titles)
Indexed by MEDLINE (e.g on PubMed) (5592 titles)
2368 journals
Indexed at Embase
Unique to Embase
Search:
[embase]/lim
3028 journals
2564 journals
Indexed at Embase
Also covered by MEDLINE
Indexed by MEDLINE
Also in MEDLINE
Search:
Search:
[embase]/lim AND
[medline]/lim
[medline]/lim NOT
[embase]/lim
Section 3.1
Journal Articles
Conference Abstracts
1.0 m
800 K
600 K
400 K
200 K
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Section 3.2
Indexing (Emtree Thesaurus)
Section 3.2
Deep Indexing – EMTREE
Emtree is a Life Science Thesaurus. A controlled vocabulary
for Biomedicine and related Life Sciences
 Easy to Search
Over 60,000 preferred terms and more than 270,000 synonyms
 Comprehensive Drug Searching
Chemical names, trade names, laboratory/research codes, and more
than 28,000 generic drugs and chemicals (FDA, EMEA and WHO)
 Up-To-Date
The latest drugs, diseases, organisms and procedures are indexed
and added annually
 Inclusive Terminology
All MeSH terms, with links to more than 20,000 CAS registry number
Section 3.2
Deep Indexing – EMTREE
60K terms (>260,000 synonyms)
and all MeSH terms
29K drug and chemical terms
Emtree updated 3 times a year
(back-posting each time)
All drug generic names described
by FDA and EMA, all International
Non-Proprietary Names (INNs)
described by WHO from 2000.
What is mapping?
Mapping means that searchers get
the same results regardless of which
term they use, e.g. Vioxx (synonym)
or rofecoxib (the preferred term).
Section 3.2
Deep Indexing – EMTREE
Database
Embase
PubMed
Thesaurus
Search
Emtree
'monoclonal antibody'/exp/dd_dt AND
'breast cancer'/exp/dm_dt AND
[2009-2010]/py [Note: dt = drug therapy]
MeSH
"Antibodies,Monoclonal/therapeutic use“[Mesh]
AND "Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy"[Mesh]
Limits: Publication Date from 2009 to 2010
Embase vs. PubMed : in-depth indexing + Emtree tree structure
Result
2075
357
Section 3.2
Embase vs PubMed
2 thesaurus assisted
searches but different
results!
Section 3.2
Embase vs PubMed
This article, although present
in Medline, is not indexed with
‘digoxin’ and therefore our search
for ‘digoxin’ and ‘antibacterial
agents’ did not find this article
– it’s found in Embase.
Section 3.2
Embase vs MEDLINE – Randomized Controlled Trails
Language
Embase on
Elsevier
Medline
on Ovid
Embase
Advantage
Percent
Turkish
613
75
538
717%
Korean
134
46
88
191%
Portuguese
712
442
270
61%
Dutch
606
442
164
37%
Chinese
5366
3945
1421
36%
Polish
491
434
57
13%
Spanish
2316
2137
179
8%
French
3952
3904
48
1%
German
8393
8566
-173
-2%
Section 3.2
Embase vs MEDLINE – Searching for Drugs
Product
Name2
Search Term
Citations
Emtree
Preferred Term
MeSH Preferred Term
or Substance Name3
Embase
Medline
Liptor
Atrovastatin
Atrovastatin3
7,668
1,654
Advair
Fluticasone propionate
plus Salmeterol
Fluticasone propionate
plus Salmeterol3
839
39
Plavix
Clopidogrel
Clopidogrel3
9,552
1,613
Nexium
Esomeprazole
Omeprazole4
1,493
1,558
Norvasc
Amlodipine besylate
Amlodipine4
439
621
Enbrel
Etanercept
TNFR-Fc fusion protein4
5,197
1,375
Zyprexa
Olanzapine
Olanzapine3
7,775
1,498
Remicade
Infliximab
Infliximab3
8,223
2,461
Diovan
Valsartan
Valsartan3
2,725
508
Risperdal
Risperidone
Risperidone
7,991
1,488