Article Search

Search the MLM-AI database for hits on your custom search

The Article Search page gives you full access to the biologit MLM-AI database with a familiar interface and advanced features to design, preview and test your searches. You can also seamlessly create Monitors from your search string.

Creating Searches

Search strings can be composed using logical operators like AND,OR, NOT.

• Use the ( and ) brackets to group terms together

• To search for matches of a multi-word term use quotes. Ex: "liver damage"

• You can end a term with * to match similar words.

  • Ex: pregnan* will match pregnant, pregnancy, pregnancies...

Examples:

Goal	Example Query
Search for any query terms with an OR query	acetaminophen OR paracetamol OR panadol
Search for multi-word terms with quotes	"liver damage" OR "liver toxicity"
Search for keywords AND the presence of one or more events	(acetaminophen OR paracetamol OR panadol) AND ("liver damage" OR "liver toxicity" OR "liver failure")

Auto-Expansion of Medication Names

Selecting a medication keyword with the mouse will display the "Expand" icon. Clicking on it will bring up a list of synonyms for selection. These will be included back in the query as an OR section:

(1) Click the expand icon to see known synonyms

(2) Select desired synonyms

(3) The search string now expanded with the selected synonyms

Select Dates and Source Databases

Use the Start/End dates to specify the date range to search. This will retrieve articles by publication or entry date within the date range.

Alternatively use the range buttons to quickly select last week, month or year.

Each data source available can be toggled using the selectors.

Advanced Query Editor

More complex searches can be edited in a larger view by clicking the advanced button

This view also performs syntax checking as you type.

Adverse Terms and Query Strings

In MLM-AI, adverse events are captured by AI tags indicative of suspected events, animal studies and special situations. The AI tags are designed to replace long lists of adverse "keywords" such as adverse event, adverse reaction, etc.

Where possible it is recommended to use the AI tags in place of explicit lists of adverse terms.

Query String Limits

Queries are limited to 1,000 results. When this limit is reached you will be informed with the warning below. Try reducing results with a shorter date range or a less broad query.

Comparison Mode

When designing a query string it is important to understand the impact of adding and removing query terms. Use the Compare tab to perform analysis of results between two searches.

The example below evaluates differences between an open query and a more restrictive one (with AND clause). Click on the image to expand:

Analyze Mode

Finally, it is also important to estimate the expected volume of hits from the query string to help users understand and plan for screening effort, in particular for periodic searches.

The Analyze tab automates this analysis and presents estimated hits obtained from historical periods.

The example below illustrates weekly volumes for a sample search over a 2 month period.

Create Monitors from Searches

When your search is ready a Monitor can be created directly from this page using the same search string and databases selected.

Clicking the "pill" button will direct to the Monitor configuration page, where additional monitor details can be entered.

The monitor configuration is similar to the default monitor configuration steps only the search string and database information will be pre-loaded into the monitor creation form.