LibGuides: Database Guides: How to Search DynaMed

How to Search DynaMed

Users can search for information in DynaMed in five different ways.

Clinical Questions: clinical questions by diseases, symptoms, lab results, tests, procedures, diagnoses, and treatments.
Drug Interactions: straightforward approach to compare the potential interactions of two of more drugs.
Drug Monographs: contains Drug Topic Pages that provide dosing, interactions, indications, administration, monitoring, use, and adverse effects information.
Graphics: access to over 4,700 medical graphics including tables, clinical photos, radiological images, algorithms, illustrations, and microscopic images.
Calculators: 500 clinical calculators, which aid clinicians in medical equations, clinical criteria, statistics, and more.

Executing a broad search will capture results for conditions, lab monographs, drug monographs, prevention, approaches, and images.

The search box contains auto-complete that will provide you will recommendations based on what you are typing.

Executing a Search

Helpful Hint: On results page, click the "vertical dots" next to your topic to quickly navigate to a specific section of that topic.

Navigating the Results Page

Topic pages provide users will a comprehensive overview of the topic, including: graded recommendations, society guidelines, levels of information, ICD-10 codes, management, images, and updates.

Navigating Topics Pages

Helpful Hint: Click "Find in Topic" to search for certain keywords in the topic page.

DynaMed Drug Interactions is built on Micromedex and is a straightforward approach to compare the potential interactions of two of more drugs.

Creating a Drug Interaction

Choose an interaction from the display menu to review different types of interactions. There are four main types of interactions: Drug-to-Drug, Drug-to-Ethanol, Drug-to-Tobacoo, and Drug-to-Food. When available, you will also see Drug-to-Lactation, Drug-to-Pregnancy, Drug-to-Lab, Drug-to-Allergy, and Drug-to-Precaution information.

Sorting Interactions

Helpful Hint: Even if there is no drug/drug interaction, you will still be able to view other interactions.

Review the "Severity Index" to gain an understanding of each interaction and use the "Documentation" tab to understand the quality of the supporting information.

Using the Severity Index

Review the "See Details" page for overviews of clinical management, probable mechanism, summary, literature, and references.

Interaction Details

DynaMed uses summary level information from Micromedex to build a comprehensive database of medication names (brand or trade).

Executing a Search

Drug Monographs provide a comprehensive overview of the topic, including: dosing, administration, adverse effects, and brands.

Navigating Drug Monographs

Important Features

In the Overview and Recommendations, DynaMed synthesizes current evidence, current clinical practice guidelines, and clinical expertise to provide recommendations to support clinical decision-making. The internationally-accepted Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system is used to classify synthesized recommendations as Strong or Weak.

Strong recommendations are used when, based on the available evidence, clinicians (without conflicts of interest) consistently have a high degree of confidence that the desirable consequences (health benefits, decreased costs and burdens) do, or do not, outweigh the undesirable consequences (harms, costs, burdens).

Weak recommendations are used when, based on the available evidence, clinicians believe that desirable and undesirable consequences are finely balanced, or appreciable uncertainty exists about the magnitude of expected consequences (benefits and harms). Weak recommendations are also used when the range of patient values and preferences suggests that informed patients are likely to make different choices.

DynaMed. (2020, March 17). Editorial Processes. https://www.dynamed.com/home/editorial/editorial-process

DynaMed’s critical appraisal process involves consistently-applied, systematic identification of potential sources of bias in order to enable objective communication of the relevant clinical message in the context of study’s limitations. A team of practicing physicians and methodologist objectively appraise the most valid clinical trials and clinical practice guidelines and integrate the findings into the existing clinical framework.

A simple Level of Evidence rating system makes it easy for users to quickly understand the quality of the evidence being reported in an evidence summary, and the primary rationale behind the rating.

Level 1 (likely reliable) evidence represents research results that address clinical outcomes and meet an extensive set of quality criteria that minimizes bias.
Level 2 (mid-level) evidence represents research results that address clinical outcomes and demonstrate some method of scientific investigation but do not meet the quality criteria to achieve Level 1.
Level 3 (lacking direct) evidence represents either of the following:
- Reports that are not based on scientific analysis of clinical outcomes (e.g., case series, case reports, conclusions extrapolated indirectly from scientific studies
- Research results that do not address clinical outcomes, regardless of the scientific rigor

DynaMed. (2020, March 17). Editorial Processes. https://www.dynamed.com/home/editorial/editorial-process

DynaMed provides a comprehensive list of guidelines from International Organizations, United States, United States, Australia, New Zealand.

Helpful Hint: Not all guidelines are available for free. DynaMed provides links to guidelines from professional organizations that may require users to be a member to access guidelines.