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KU Medical Library: Clinical Resources Guide

This guide will give you an overview of resources related to clinical medicine available at the Khalifa University medical library and freely available on the Internet.

Image of Clinical Resources Guide header

What are Clinical Resources?

Image of clinical encounterClinical resources are distinct from more research-oriented databases in they are designed to be most often be used in point-of-care settings. Clinical tools typically have the following qualities:

  • Evidence-based material
  • Point-of-care focus
  • Regularly reviewed and updated
  • Cross-disciplinary coverage and use
  • Integrated, specialized tools
  • Patient information

Clinical tools have these information aspects:

  • Fast answers — Point-of-care summaries
  • Concise and complete — Key facts
  • Up-to-date — Regularly refreshed
  • Evidence-graded — Strength of evidence
  • Transparent sourcing — Authorship and citations
  • Local relevance — Such as practice guidelines

Medical Literature: How much is there?

One way to think about the importance of clinical tools is to consider the amount of medical literature, the rate at which it expands, and thus the challenge of being an informed medical practitioner. For the slide below, take a guess about how long it is estimated for the medical literature to double in volume by year. Click the arrow on the right for the answers.

Which resources are covered in this guide?

This guide includes information on the following resources: