The 6S Hierarchy below is meant to illustrate which types of resources/interfaces are the most efficient/effective for finding information to answer your clinical questions. Unlike pyramids based on levels of evidence, this one is ranked on the degree to which the information is critically pre-appraised. You would start out searching the most pre-processed information (where someone has already done the reading, critical appraisal, synthesizing, etc.), only moving towards original research as your question continues to go unanswered. For a more detailed pyramid, including lists of resources that fall into the different levels, see the links below.
Most compiled source of information where:
eg) EPR, QuadraMed CPR, EPIC
These are are good for:
These are good for:
These are good for getting the short version of a systematic review's findings along with a critical appraisal of their methods
These are good for:
These are mostly the same resources as the Synopses of Synthesis but would provide a critical appraisal and summary of an individual study. To save time you may wish to search for synopsis of synthesis and synopsis of studies at the same time.
Use databases of indexed citations to find individual studies.
These are good for: