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Prepared by Nancy McMurrer for Medical Malpractice.
1. Health Care: Substantive Medical ResearchNote that some of the sources below are indexes, with bibliographic citations to articles (B), and some contain full-text materials (F).
* See list of databases available through the UW Libraries Research Databases at http://www.lib.washington.edu/. UW restricted means that you must access them on campus or via the UW Internet Connectivity Kit. Also see the list of databases at http://healthlinks.washington.edu/databases/. ** Not available on the academic contracts. a. Medical Periodical LiteratureIn addition to the indexes to periodical literature, both Westlaw and LexisNexis have a number of full-text medical and health care periodicals online. You can search a few group files: HEALTH;RXMEGA, HEALTH;ALLJNL, or HEALTH;MEDJNL in LexisNexis; AMA-JNLS in Westlaw. In addition to these group files, there are a number of individual medical journals available. Westlaw has a searchable database of all its holdings – IDEN. To search LexisNexis for particular journals, use the Find a Source window or go to the LexisNexis Source Locator, http://web.nexis.com/sources/. You may also call the vendors’ online research help: LexisNexis at 1-800-45 LEXIS (455-3947) and Westlaw at 1-800-REF-ATTY [733-2889]. To locate medical periodicals that are available to students via the Internet, go to the UW's medical and health care website – http://healthlinks.washington.edu/journals. At the top of the page, you will see the link for an alphabetical list of online medical journals. Note that some items in the list are preceded by a padlock icon, indicating that resource is restricted to UW users. Links to full text of particular articles may also be found through some of the indexes available at the Healthlinks webpage. b. Drug and Medical Device InformationNote that some of the sources below are indexes, with bibliographic citations to articles (B), and some contain full-text materials (F).
* See list of databases available through the UW Libraries Research Databases at http://www.lib.washington.edu/. UW restricted means that you must access them on campus or via the UW Internet Connectivity Kit. Also see the list of databases at http://healthlinks.washington.edu/databases/. c. Medical Reference MaterialsDictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference texts for a variety of subjects may be found in print in the UW Health Sciences Library; they are most likely to be kept in reference stacks and to be limited to library use only. For overviews of particular medical subjects written for a layperson, add the term "popular" to a keyword or subject search. Just as in the law, books written for laypersons have that term as part of the subject heading. Gallagher Law Library has some reference tools, for example, Stedman's Medical Dictionary (R121.S8 1990@ Reserve), Medical Abbreviations (R123.D35 1993@ Reference Office), and the Physician's Desk Reference (RS75.P5, current @ Reference Office). Online full-text reference materials are also available through the UW Libraries Research Databases, http://www.lib.washington.edu and through the UW Healthlinks website, http://healthlinks.washington.edu. At the latter website, look at the table of contents on the left for a link to Textbooks. At the UW Libraries Research Databases, you may select either an alphabetical list of all resources, or listings by subject.
* See list of databases available through the UW Libraries Research Databases at http://www.lib.washington.edu/. UW restricted means that you must access them on campus or via the UW Internet Connectivity Kit. Also see the list of databases at http://healthlinks.washington.edu/databases/. 2. Medical MalpracticeSome of the best resources for research in this area will be treatises and loose-leaf services, either in print or online. Loose-leaf services bring together in one place statutory and administrative law, cases and commentary. Both Westlaw and LexisNexis have the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) health law loose-leaf books, as well as other treatises; these are not available on the academic contract. There are also a number of law reviews devoted to health care and medical/legal issues. Many of these can be found on LexisNexis and Westlaw. To find a particular law review, or to locate the range of secondary sources that are found on these online services, check their online or print directories. On LexisNexis, look at the option to Explore Sources, and click on the Area of Law By Topic link, then find Healthcare & Medical. On Westlaw, go to the Westlaw Directory and look under Topical Materials by Area of Practice for Health and Medicine. You may also call the vendors’ online research help: LexisNexis at 1-800-543-6862 and Westlaw at 1-800-REF-ATTY [733-2889]. To search legal journals for articles on particular subjects, consider using one of the two legal indexes. Gallagher has both of them in print in the Reading Room: Index to Legal Periodicals and Books, which began in 1888, with coverage even earlier, and Current Law Index, which began in 1980. Both are online in LexisNexis and Westlaw, although our academic contract does not cover the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books. The library has an electronic version of Current Law Index, which is called LegalTrac. Use the electronic Current Index to Legal Periodicals, which is produced by the Gallagher Law Library, for the most up-to-date subject access to articles in legal journals. Remember that medical malpractice issues are also covered in medical periodical literature. Legal and general news sources can provide excellent coverage about recent cases or other developments in the medical malpractice area. For more detail, see Current Awareness Research, below.
* See list of databases available through the UW Libraries Research Databases at http://www.lib.washington.edu/. UW restricted means that you must access them on campus or via the UW Internet Connectivity Kit. Also see the list of databases at http://healthlinks.washington.edu/databases/. ** Not available on the academic contract. 3. Health Care: Law and RegulationThe BNA Health Law Reporter, a loose-leaf service referred to above, is a good resource for researching general health law issues. Both Westlaw and LexisNexis have specific primary law databases and files for statutory law, administrative materials, and case law relating to health care and medicine. Use the online directories, under Area of Law by Topic, then Healthcare and Medical for LexisNexis; in Westlaw, look under Topical Materials by Area of Practice for Health and Medicine. You may also call the vendors’ online research help: LexisNexis is 1-800-543-6862 and Westlaw is 1-800-REF-ATTY [733-2889].
4. Current Awareness ResearchPart of practice is keeping up with the latest developments. In addition to the specialized materials listed below, general newspaper articles can be very good sources for following late-breaking stories. News sources often follow legislation, both federal and state, or they may provide information that will help you locate a document available at a government website. Both LexisNexis and Westlaw have large collections of newspapers, both in individual databases for a single newspaper or in group files. A good file for a "quick and dirty" search on LexisNexisis NEWS;CURNWS, which contains the most recent two years of the newspapers on the service; NEWS;ARCNWS covers newspaper articles that appeared earlier than two years ago. A similar database on Westlaw is ALLNEWS, which searches the most current one to two years. To search earlier years in the same database, look for the instructions on the same screen as the search window. Industry or subject oriented newsletters are also a good resource for current developments. You can search for specific newsletters, or use the handy health and medicine group files, some of which are noted below. Use the online directories, under Area of Law by Topic, then Healthcare and Medical for LexisNexis. In Westlaw, look under Topical Materials by Area of Practice for Health and Medicine. You may also call the vendors’ online research help: LexisNexis at 1-800-543-6862 and Westlaw at 1-800-REF-ATTY [733-2889].
* See list of databases available through the UW Libraries Research Databases at http://www.lib.washington.edu/. UW restricted means that you must access them on campus or via the UW Internet Connectivity Kit. Also see the list of databases at http://healthlinks.washington.edu/databases/. ** Not available on the academic contract. 5. Internet Resources: A Few Starting PointsUW HEALTHLINKS, http://healthlinks.washington.edu/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov National Institutes of Health, http://www.nih.gov/ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (formerly Health Care Financing Administration), http://cms.hhs.gov/ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, http://www.ahrq.gov/ President's Council on Bioethics, http://bioethics.gov/ National Library of Medicine, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ healthfinder, http://www.healthfinder.gov World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/ Washington State Department of Health, http://www.doh.wa.gov/ Citizens for Patients Rights, http://www.ctpatientsrights.org/index.html Health Law Links, http://law.slu.edu/healthlaw/research/links/index.html American Health Lawyers Association, http://www.healthlawyers.org American Medical Association, http://www.ama-assn.org/ Health Hippo, http://hippo.findlaw.com/ Duke University Center for Health Policy, Law & Management, http://www.hpolicy.duke.edu/cyberexchange/ Emory University MedWeb, http://www.medweb.emory.edu/MedWeb/ Mayo Clinic Health Oasis, http://www.mayohealth.org HealthAtoZ, http://www.healthatoz.com Gallagher Law Library Internet Legal Resources http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/research.html 'Lectric Law Library Lawcopedia's Medical Malpractice, http://www.lectlaw.com/tmed.html 6. Medical Malpractice Research GuideSheryl Summers Kramer, "A Research Guide to Medical Malpractice and the Law: Revisited," 20 Legal Ref. Serv. Q. (4) 111-126 (2001). |