Searching the medical literature using PubMed: a tutorial.

Staying current with advances in medicine is becoming a major challenge for clinicians. Access to updated repositories of medical information and the expertise to locate relevant information within them are becoming necessary clinical skills. PubMed (http://www.pubmedgov) provides free access to the largest biomedical resource available and is updated daily. Clinicians can use this resource to find answers to focused clinical questions quickly and efficiently. The purpose of this article is to assist clinicians in the development of the basic skills required to use PubMed to make informed clinical decisions.