ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses issues with the tools and processes used to gather information and evidence, particularly bibliographic databases, web search engines and point-of-care tools. It also discusses problems with the evidence base itself, as well as with the information seeker, that could make the resources difficult to use. The chapter proposes some solutions to aid those seeking evidence in the patient safety field. While Google and PubMed are 'free' tools, point-of-care subscription based services can be cost prohibitive for individuals not based in a large healthcare organization that can afford such tools. Bibliographic databases are collections of records or references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc. The fact that bibliographic databases rely on indexing and controlled vocabulary introduces biases as indexers can be inconsistent while coding the documents. Healthcare information is scattered across many disciplines and publications, and therefore throughout a large number of bibliographic resources.
