Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : February 2002

NEW on DataStar - Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness

In September 2001, DataStar launched the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR). We are now following this up with the release of its sister file, DARE - the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness.

Like CDSR, this new file focuses on the rapidly growing specialization of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). With the ever-increasing availability of biomedical research, decision-makers need to be given the opportunity to rate the effectiveness of that research. Whereas the Cochrane database contains original review articles summarizing the available literature on a single subject, DARE takes the route of critiquing review articles published elsewhere and rating each one on its own merits. Thus, the two files used together perfectly complement each other.

Compiled by the UK's National Health Service Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness scans the biomedical literature for articles relating to the efficacy of treatments and, in the form of a structured abstract, rates that research. These structured abstracts may include issues such as:

• authors' objectives
• types of intervention
• specifics of the interventions
• details of participants
• sources used in the research
• criteria for inclusion
• form of evaluations included - e.g., cross-over, double-blind, placebo, etc.
• number of studies included
• countries covered by the review
• results of the review
• if cost information is included
• criteria on which validity/quality is assessed
• how different studies were compared
• authors' conclusions
• CRD commentary on the value of the research
• implications of the review

Each DARE document has a full citation to enable users to find the original research article. The database is international in its coverage. Additionally, as an aid to retrieval, MeSH® (Medical Subject Headings) from the National Library of Medicine have been applied to each of the documents.

Full documents in DARE cost US$ 1.40/SFR 2.16 each, with a database connect-time charge of US$ 30/SFR 45 per hour.

For more information on the content of DARE and how to search it, refer to the online datasheet, or to the BASE database — search as BASE-DARE.

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