Research Guides: Health Sciences: Databases and Resources

PubMed, MEDLINE, PMC: What's the Difference?

PubMed® is a search platform from the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. It contains content from MEDLINE, PMC, and the NCBI Bookshelf.

MEDLINE is the largest component of PubMed. MEDLINE is a database that consists of citations from journals selected for MEDLINE and indexed with MeSH terms.

PMC is a full-text archive of articles from journals selected by the National Library of Medicine, as well as individual articles collected for funding policies. Open access.

NCBI Bookshelf is a full-text archive of books, reports, databases, and other documents related to biomedical, health, and life sciences.

Resources for Interdisciplinary Research

Interdisciplinary Bibliographic Literature Databases

These databases are multidisciplinary with broad coverage. Use them to get started and for your main search.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed is maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). PubMed is a platform that contains over 32 million citations for biomedical literature. PubMed contains MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and additional resources. Records go back to 1946 with some earlier historical content. PubMed has a controlled vocabulary called Medical Subject Headings, or MeSH, to aid you with discovery of relevant literature.
Embase This link opens in a new window
Embase is a biomedical literature database that focuses on drugs and pharmacology, medical devices, clinical medicine, and basic science relevant to clinical medicine. The database contains journal articles, conference papers, abstracts and reports in biomedicine dating back to 1947. It includes over 44 million citations and over 3,000 journals not included in PubMed.
Medline This link opens in a new window
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A citation index to all areas of medicine and the health sciences including clinical medicine, nursing, psychiatry, dentistry, pathology, toxicology, nutrition, health care planning and administration, veterinary science, medical education, and more. MEDLINE is the major component contained within PubMed, a separate platform. Access to MEDLINE provided by EBSCO.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
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Scopus is a bibliographic literature database curated by subject matter experts. It contains over 75 million records, with coverage as far back as 1788. Subject areas include health sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences.
Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
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Indexing and abstracts for over 7,000 journals. Full text of articles for over 4,000 scholarly publications, including more than 3,100 peer-reviewed publications. Multidisciplinary subject coverage, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, and ethnic studies.

Guideline Resources

Look for additional guidance in clinical practice guidelines and other guidelines, protocols, and recommendations.

ECRI Guidelines Trust
You'll need to register for a free account to view guidelines through ECRI Guidelines Trust.

Trip Database This link opens in a new window
Trip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations This link opens in a new window
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services. These reviews are published as U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on the Task Force Web site and in a peer-reviewed journal.

Background and Reference

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
The CQ Researcher, published by CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Press, reports a current social issue each week. Reports are approximately 20 pages long and provide background information, important points to consider, charts and graphs, and a source list for further reading.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
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Selected titles. Gale eBooks provides access to encyclopedias and other reference works covering education, law, world biography, business, economics, other cultures, public health, and more. Terms and Conditions
SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
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SAGE Knowledge is a searchable collection of thousands of selected ebooks and over 60 encyclopedias and reference works covering many subjects, including business and management, criminal justice, education, family studies, politics, and many others, and provides unlimited, site-wide use. Terms and Conditions.

Trade, Popular, or Other

Kaiser Family Foundation
KFF is an endowed, non-profit organization filling the need for trusted, independent information on national health issues. They are an information organization, and we accomplish our mission through policy analysis, polling and survey research, and journalism — the three core components of KFF which enable them to play a national role in health policy.
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan research center that studies national and international issues including religion, health, politics, technology, journalism, economics, and communities.
ProPublica
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Databases for Specialized Research

The databases listed below may be good options as a complementary search source for specialized topics. While they may have some overlap of coverage with PubMed or a larger multidisciplinary database, you will likely find unique and specialized results.

Rehabilitation, Communication, and Nursing

CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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The Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature contains over 7.6 million records and coverage back to 1937.
Health Source- Nursing/Academic Edition This link opens in a new window
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Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides researchers, allied health professionals, nurses and medical educators with access to full-text scholarly journals focusing on many medical disciplines. It indexes over 840 journal titles, 250 of which are peer-reviewed.
Nursing Reference Center Plus This link opens in a new window
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Designed specifically for nurses, this resource provides evidence-based information for point of care, continuing education, nursing research and more.
OTseeker This link opens in a new window
OTseeker is a database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials and other resources relevant to occupational therapy interventions. Most trials have been critically appraised for their validity and interpretability. In one database, OTseeker provides fast and easy access to information from a wide range of sources to inform occupational therapy.
PEDro This link opens in a new window
PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database, a free database of over 47,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. For each trial, review or guideline, PEDro provides the citation details, the abstract and a link to the full text, where possible. All trials on PEDro are independently assessed for quality.
Physical Education Index This link opens in a new window
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Citations and abstracts in the area of physical education and related fields from peer-reviewed journals, report literature, conference proceedings, trade magazines, patents, articles from the popular press, and many other publications.
RehabData by NARIC This link opens in a new window
The REHABDATA database spans almost 50 years of disability and rehabilitation research. More than 200,000 abstracts are available through this database, including approximately 115,000 records originally indexed in the Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange (CIRRIE) database.
SpeechBITE This link opens in a new window
speechBITE is a database of intervention studies across the scope of speech pathology practice. speechBITE was launched in 2008 by a team of speech pathologists at the University of Sydney who wanted easier access and better appraisal of research evidence in the area of communication and swallowing disorders.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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A bibliographic and full text database covering both serial and monographic literature on sports, physical fitness, exercise, sports medicine, sports science, physical education, and kinesiology. This database provides full text for more than 440 journals, with full-text coverage dating back to 1985.
Sports Medicine and Education Index This link opens in a new window
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Citations and abstracts in the area of physical education and related fields from peer-reviewed journals, report literature, conference proceedings, trade magazines, patents, articles from the popular press, and many other publications.

Education

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
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Indexing and abstracts for over 7,000 journals. Full text of articles for over 4,000 scholarly publications, including more than 3,100 peer-reviewed publications. Multidisciplinary subject coverage, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, and ethnic studies.
ERIC- EBSCO This link opens in a new window
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Contains materials in all areas of education and at all levels from preschool through college. Provides citation and abstract information from over 750 educational journals and related documents from the Educational Resource Information Center educational symposium report literature dating back to 1967. Also includes full text ERIC Digest records, along with references for additional information breakdown of the 16 ERIC clearinghouses.
Education Research Complete This link opens in a new window
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A bibliographic and full text database covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas of education. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing, including areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues.

Psychology and Sociology

Abstracts in Social Gerontology This link opens in a new window
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Abstracts in Social Gerontology is the place to look for aging research. This bibliographic literature database contains over 110,000 records with coverage back to 1966.
APA PsycArticles This link opens in a new window
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PsycARTICLES is an online database covering general psychology and specialized basic, applied, clinical, and theoretical research in psychology. Over 25,000 full-text articles are available from 42 journals published by American Psychological Association, Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe & Huber. The APA journals offer full-text articles from 1988 to the present with earlier years currently in production.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
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PsycInfo, from the American Psychological Association, contains nearly 5 million records and has a Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms to assist you in the discovery of relevant sources.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive database covering information concerning topics in emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational & experimental methods, including full text coverage for nearly 400 journals.
PTSD Pubs This link opens in a new window
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Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, PTSD Pubs database provides citations to literature on post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental-health related traumatic events, including assessment, description, prevention, or treatment of any psychiatric disorder such as dissociative identity disorder, other dissociative disorders, and borderline personality.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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SocINDEX with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. The index features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,000 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers.

Business

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
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Business Source Complete contains articles from newspapers, trade publications, magazines, and scholarly journals on all aspects of business and economics. Features SWOT Analyses and industry profiles from MarketLine as well as country reports.
International Business Online This link opens in a new window
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International Business Online maps 4,000 learning items to the modern international business syllabus. We include textbooks, book chapters, cases from well-known case providers like the Kellogg School of Management, corporate training videos, sample business documents and research reports. Aperian Global and Atma Global, providers of corporate training for international business professionals, are our primary partners. International Business Online is designed to make top-quality learning material easily and quickly discoverable to enhance all forms of in-class and online learning.

Pharmacy

Clinical Info HIV Drug Database
Find information on FDA-approved HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infection drugs and investigational HIV/AIDS drugs.

Embase This link opens in a new window
Embase is a biomedical literature database that focuses on drugs and pharmacology, medical devices, clinical medicine, and basic science relevant to clinical medicine. The database contains journal articles, conference papers, abstracts and reports in biomedicine dating back to 1947. It includes over 44 million citations and over 3,000 journals not included in PubMed.

DailyMed
DailyMed provides trustworthy information about marketed drugs in the United States. DailyMed is the official provider of FDA label information (package inserts). This Web site provides a standard, comprehensive, up-to-date, look-up and download resource of medication content and labeling found in medication package inserts. he drug labeling information on this Web site is the most recent submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and currently in use; it may include, for example, strengthened warnings undergoing FDA review or minor editorial changes.

Drugs@FDA This link opens in a new window
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Drugs@FDA includes information about drugs, including biological products, approved for human use in the United States (see FAQ), but does not include information about FDA-approved products regulated by the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (for example, vaccines, allergenic products, blood and blood products, plasma derivatives, cellular and gene therapy products). For prescription brand-name drugs, Drugs@FDA typically includes the most recent labeling approved by the FDA (for example, Prescribing Information and FDA-approved patient labeling when available), regulatory information, and FDA staff reviews that evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug.
Office of Dietary Supplements This link opens in a new window
The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) fact sheets give a current overview of individual vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements. ODS has fact sheets in two versions—Health Professional and Consumer. Both versions provide the same types of information but vary in the level of detail.

Medline Plus: Drugs, Herbs, and Supplements
Learn about your prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. Includes side effects, dosage, special precautions, and more.
RxNorm
RxNorm provides normalized names for clinical drugs and links its names to many of the drug vocabularies commonly used in pharmacy management and drug interaction software, including those of First Databank, Micromedex, and Gold Standard Drug Database. By providing links between these vocabularies, RxNorm can mediate messages between systems not using the same software and vocabulary. RxNorm now includes the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Compendial Nomenclature from the United States Pharmacopeial Convention. USP is a cumulative data set of all Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API).

Clinical Summaries

These resources may give an overview of a disease or condition and link to other resources, such as more evidence, or consumer health information.

Johns Hopkins Health Library: Conditions and Diseases This link opens in a new window
A health library from Johns Hopkins Medicine with summaries for health conditions.
Mayo Clinic: Diseases and Conditions This link opens in a new window
A health library from the Mayo Clinic with summaries of information on health conditions.
MedlinePlus This link opens in a new window
Contains clinical summaries and more from the National Institutes of health on over 500 diseases and conditions. Includes an encyclopedia and dictionaries and links to clinical trials.
Merck Manuals This link opens in a new window
Full text versions of the Merck Manual of Medical Information - Home Edition, the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, and the Merck Manual of Geriatrics. Choose professional version, conduct search.
Nursing Reference Center Plus This link opens in a new window
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Designed specifically for nurses, this resource provides evidence-based information for point of care, continuing education, nursing research and more.
SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
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SAGE knowledge is a searchable collection of over 60 encyclopedias and reference works covering many subjects, and may include book chapters or summaries on diseases or conditions.

Tests Index at Lab Tests Online
Lab Tests Online is an award-winning health information web resource designed to help patients and caregivers understand the many lab tests that are a vital part of medical care. Since its launch in 2001, Lab Tests Online has helped millions of users learn about their tests and discuss them more clearly with their healthcare providers.

Anatomy Resources

The following resources have a variety of human anatomy, musculoskeletal systems, and radiological images. Some images have a Creative Commons license and may be used in presentations or posters. Others are to be used for teaching purposes only.

Anatomy and Physiology by J. Gordon Betts; Kelly A. Young; Peter Desaix; Eddie Johnson; Jody E. Johnson; Oksana Korol; Dean Kruse; Brandon Poe; James A. Wise; Mark Womble
ISBN: 9781947172043
Publication Date: 2013-04-25
Anatomy and Physiology is a dynamic textbook for the two-semester human anatomy and physiology course for life science and allied health majors. The book is organized by body system and covers standard scope and sequence requirements. Its lucid text, strategically constructed art, career features, and links to external learning tools address the critical teaching and learning challenges in the course. The web-based version of Anatomy and Physiology also features links to surgical videos, histology, and interactive diagrams. From OpenStax.

Anatomia This link opens in a new window
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From the University of Toronto, the Anatomia Collection contains approximately 4500 illustrations of the human anatomy which are contained within published books, often historical in nature.
Anatomy Atlases This link opens in a new window
Anatomy Atlases addresses the continuum of anatomy education and may be of use primarily to three distinct populations. It is written for and intended primarily for use by aspiring healthcare students and practicing clinicians.
Bassett Collection of Stereoscopic Images from Lane Medical Library This link opens in a new window
1,547 photographic images and accompanying drawings based on photographs are compiled into a 24-volume Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy, completed in 1962. The images in this collection are derived from the Atlas project. These images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
eSkeletons This link opens in a new window
eSkeletons provides an interactive environment in which to examine and learn about skeletal anatomy through this osteology database. Images and content are created by faculty, staff, and students at the University of Texas. All photographs, images, and text are copyrighted by eSkeletons, John Kappelman, or the University of Texas at Austin, and licensed by Creative Commons.

Gross Anatomy Dissections from the University of Wisconsin
These videos were developed for the University of Wisconsin Gross Anatomy Dissection course.

Innerbody Anatomy Explorer This link opens in a new window
Innerbody.com first began in 1998 with the goal of building a legitimate, trustworthy personal health resource. This resource contains a comprehensive section on the human anatomy.
Muscle Atlas from University of Washington This link opens in a new window
The medical illustrations contained in this online atlas are copyrighted © 1997 by the University of Washington and cannot be used without permission; however, the images may serve as a teaching tool.

Neuroanatomy from the University of British Columbia
Together with anatomy educators from across campus at UBC and from partner universities, Neuroanatomy creators are making open educational resources for neuroscience and anatomy for the global community, including video, e-books and interactive web materials.

University of Southern California Orthopaedic Sugical Anatomy Teaching Collection This link opens in a new window
Over 1,900 items in a digital collection on orthopaedic surgeries.

Tests and Measurements

Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print This link opens in a new window
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Contains reviews of over 2,000 tests, including lists of commercially published tests, in such areas as education, foreign language, math, social studies, and speech and hearing.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
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Use PsycInfo's advanced search function to limit to field "TM Tests & Measures." Search with keywords and thesaurus terms as you normally would. Your search will be limited to literature that addresses a test or measure.
Rehabilitation Measure Database This link opens in a new window
With over 400 measures, tests, tools, and more, the Rehabilitation Measure Database (RMD) is the go-to resource for benchmarks and outcomes.

Sports Medicine Wiki
The world's first and only open access sports medicine wiki. The content is freely available to anyone in the world at any time.

Test Link: The ETS Test Collection This link opens in a new window
The ETS Test Collection includes an extensive library of 20,000 tests and other measurement devices from the early 1900s to the present.

Apps

3D Brain
Use your touch screen to rotate and zoom around 29 interactive structures. Discover how each brain region functions, what happens when it is injured, and how it is involved in mental illness. Each detailed structure comes with information on functions, disorders, brain damage, case studies, and links to modern research.
Anatomy 3D by Anatronica
A free 3D educational guide to the human skeletal and muscular anatomy (available also as FREE web app and for Windows/MacOS desktop as well) featuring an advanced interactive 3D touch interface. Wikipedia and Grays anatomy info available.
Anatomy Learning
Explore the human body in real-time. A true and totally 3D app for studying human anatomy, built on an advanced interactive 3D touch interface.
Learn Muscles: Anatomy
A great reference, testing, and education tool. Includes 125 beautiful muscles images with name, action, origin, insertion, and comments, plus audio pronunciation guide, a quiz maker, and 4 short videos to create a rich learning experience.
Physiology Animations
Physiology Animations is a video reference atlas with 3D animations that communicate core physiology and common conditions. There are 14 free videos to start, with more available via in-app purchases.
Visual Anatomy Lite
Interactive anatomy reference with muscle action movies, 3D rotational models, Gray's anatomy images add-on, Latin names, a muscle highlighting tool and full description!

These apps can be used for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Unfortunately, not all of these apps are free but may have free versions. Please check before downloading.

Assistive Express
Assistive Apps presents Assistive Express, an affordable Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) Device, catered to people with difficulty in speech. The biggest challenge for such users when using AAC devices is the number of key strokes or hits required to construct any sentences.
Grid Player
Grid Player is an Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) App that helps people who cannot speak or who have unclear speech to communicate. Sentences that you create are spoken out loud.
Patient Communicator
The Patient Communicator by the Society of Critical Care Medicine is designed to improve communication among patients, families, and caregivers. With translations in 18 languages; a diary feature; options to easily communicate about pain, moods, and needs; a glossary of terms and other education materials for patients and families; the Patient Communicator app can help ease the stress of a hospital stay.
SmallTalk Intensive Care
SmallTalk Intensive Care provides a picture-based vocabulary of phrases that patients can use to communicate their needs and feelings to medical-care providers in the ICU. It includes phrases such as “I have chest pain” and “I want a doctor.”
SoundingBoard
SoundingBoard transforms your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into the latest in communication technology. In just minutes, you can create custom boards using AbleNet symbols or your own words. Perfect for children in special education, persons on the autism spectrum, and adults with disabilities. SoundingBoard includes switch access and is compatible with the AbleNet Blue2 Switch.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Prevention Task Force
The Prevention TaskForce application assists primary care clinicians to identify the screening, counseling, and preventive medication services that are appropriate for their patients. The Prevention TaskForce data is based on the current recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and can be searched by specific patient characteristics, such as age, sex, and selected behavioral risk factors.
American College of Physicians (ACP) Clinical Guidelines & Recommendations
ACP's goal is to provide clinicians with recommendations based on the best available evidence; to inform clinicians of when there is no evidence; and finally, to help clinicians deliver the best health care possible.
Calculate by QxMD
A clinical calculator and decision support tool in the areas of cardiology, internal medicine, nephrology, general practice, hematology, gastroenterology, emergency medicine, oncology, orthopedics, respirology, neurology, neurosurgery, general surgery, obstetrics and more.
Epocrates
With valuable features including drug information, interaction check, pill identification, clinical practice guidelines, and formulary, Epocrates is a great learning tool.
Eponyms
Learn medical terms with these short descriptions of about 1800 common and obscure medical eponyms (e.g., Rovsing's sign, Virchow's node) to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. A perfect tool to quickly look up the meaning of any eponym.
Lab Values Reference
This app is perfect for both academic and clinical settings, providing clear, concise coverage of 500 of the most commonly performed laboratory tests.

Medscape
Medscape is the leading online destination for physicians and healthcare professionals worldwide. Designed to provide a personalized experience, the Medscape app offers the latest medical news and expert commentary in your specialty as well as drug and disease information, relevant professional education, and CME/CE activities.
Read by QxMD
Read by QxMD allows you to follow scholarly publications from journals you select. May be able to integrate with institutional credentials for full-text access.

Drugs@FDA This link opens in a new window
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Drugs@FDA includes information about drugs, including biological products, approved for human use in the United States (see FAQ), but does not include information about FDA-approved products regulated by the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (for example, vaccines, allergenic products, blood and blood products, plasma derivatives, cellular and gene therapy products). For prescription brand-name drugs, Drugs@FDA typically includes the most recent labeling approved by the FDA (for example, Prescribing Information and FDA-approved patient labeling when available), regulatory information, and FDA staff reviews that evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug.

Clinical Trial Registries

ClinicalTrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov is a database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted around the world. ClinicalTrials.gov is a resource provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Conduct basic and advanced searches of clinical study records; browse studies; and search studies by topic, country, or region. Find out how clinical studies are conducted and who can participate.
ISRCTN Registry
The ISRCTN registry is a primary clinical trial registry recognised by WHO and ICMJE that accepts all clinical research studies (whether proposed, ongoing or completed), providing content validation and curation and the unique identification number necessary for publication. All study records in the database are freely accessible and searchable. The ISRCTN registry makes data on all registered studies available worldwide through the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and has agreed to use the WHO's preferred term (COVID-19) in the public or scientific title in order to make these studies easily discoverable
WHO ICTRP Search Portal
The ICTRP Search Portal aims to provide a single point of access to information about ongoing and completed clinical trials. It provides a searchable database containing the trial registration data sets made available by data providers around the world meeting criteria for content and quality control.

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