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* UC Irvine access only

Medical Student Course Guide: CF1

This guide is specifically designed for UCI medical students. It provides direct links to online key resources and textbooks for the undergraduate medical education curriculum.
URL: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/MS_courseguide

Clinical Foundations 1: 445ABC

* = UC Irvine access only

Required Textbooks:  

Optional Texts or Multimedia resources:

Summaries of New Research Plus Experts Commentary From Physician-Editors 

  • *NEJM Journal Watch -- reviews over 250 scientific and medical journals to present important clinical research findings and insightful commentary.

  • *ACP Journal club -- Reviews over 120 leading medical journals relevant to internal medicine and its subspecialties. This monthly feature in Annals of Internal Medicine contains an editorial, easy to read abstracts, and a page of other notable articles.


Clinical Decision Tools

Key Resources with ebooks and Study Tools for CF1

Clinical Epidemiology

* = UC Irvine access only

Required Textbook:

Required Reading Materials: 

Practical Clinical Application: 

CF1: Self-Directed Learning e-Poster Assignment

Researching the Best Available Evidence to Answer Your Questions

Specific tasks include:

  1. the development of your clinical research question within the PICO framework
  2. the four elements of your PICO question derived from #1.
  3. a brief description of the background resources you used and provide your PubMed search strategies (e.g., key terms and search concept).
    • Copy and paste the PubMed search strategy from PubMed History located under the Advanced Search Builder in the Methods section of your e-Poster. 
  4. the identification of the top three clinical studies you have found that help to answer your clinical question. 
    • Copy and paste the three references you found in AMA format under the References Section of your e-Poster. 
  5. a brief analysis of the strengths and weaknesses for each of the top three citations you have identified.
  6. a small-group presentation and describe the challenges you encountered during this project and the strategies you will use for overcoming those challenges in the next few months.

General EBM Resources

PubMed@UCI -- Tutorials

PubMed Search Tips

  • PubMed may add a number of synonyms, spelling variations, MeSH etc. Check the Search Details to see how PubMed translated your search terms. Did it interpret your search how you wanted?
  • Use only “essential” terms. PubMed's simple search box may look the same as Google’s, but PubMed is constructed very differently with a sophisticated search engine. Unlike Google, PubMed has a database of subject headings and key medical terminology through which every search is filtered. When conducting your search, use nouns or MeSH terms with the Boolean search concepts AND, OR, or NOT connecting them. Putting too many words or full sentences will only muddle your search results. PubMed is not Google!
  • Use PubMed Additional Filters to refine your search results to recent publications, Language - English, Species - Human, and Article Types - Clinical trial, Randomized Controlled Trial, etc.
  • Don’t restrict the search results to Free Full-text or Full-text. Very few articles are available free of charge for download.  Most peer-reviewed journals require annual subscriptions. The Full-Text filter option may cause you to miss relevant results from resources that the UCI Libraries own or those that could be requested through UC-eLinks Request It.
  • Avoid using acronyms or other abbreviations as search terms. PubMed is often able to discern the meaning of SOME acronyms and abbreviations, e.g., GERD = gastroesophageal reflux. However, some common abbreviations are NOT recognized by PubMed, e.g., UTI, AOM, ACBE, etc.
  • Do not include “placebo” OR “no treatment” in the search strategy.Avoid using imprecise search words. Some words you might try as search terms may be used inconsistently in published articles or are too imprecise to be useful, e.g., increased, better, greater, less, worse, etc.
  • Display Options – Summary or Abstract.   Sorted by Best match is set as the default display.  Select Sorted by Publication Date or Most Recent.
  • Cite – Allow you to o copy or download a single citation in a specific style format.
  • Similar articles – if you find too few results, the abstract page of a citation provides a pre-calculated set of additional PubMed citations closely related to that article.

Additional Resources for Patient Care

* = UC Irvine access only

Additional Resources for Clinical Topics, Medical History taking, Physical Examination, and Differential Diagnosis

Differential Diagnosis

Patient communication

Subjects: Medicine