Welcome to BMA library's MEDLINE Plus


A service for BMA members

To search MEDLINE Plus please log in to the website. When logged in you can access MEDLINE Plus at any point in the website by selecting the Medline link in the blue menu at top right of the screen.

What are the features of MEDLINE Plus? Read on

Any queries? If our frequently asked questions page doesn't have your answer, please contact the MEDLINE Plus help desk, telephone 020 7383 6582 or email: info.medline@bma.org.uk and quote your BMA membership number.

Please be warned that although MEDLINE Plus is a very powerful search tool, searches carried out using the system will not be able to retrieve all that has been published on a particular subject.

For example, an inexperienced searcher may find only 15% of the total available information in MEDLINE (only 50% of which may in fact be included in the database), a professional searcher only 45% of the total available information. [Ref: Haynes RB, McKibbon KA, Walker CJ, Ryan N, Fitzgerald D, Ramsden MF. Online access to MEDLINE in clinical settings. A study of use and usefulness. Ann Intern Med. 1990 Jan 1;112(1):78-84.]

Abstracts may fail to include essential details contained in the full text of the articles referenced.
  • Update service

    Keep up to date with the evidence in your specialist field. Have details of the current journal literature sent to you regularly. The BMA library can provide members with a monthly update service on clinical topics of your choice. Search strategies for the MEDLINE database will be prepared at your request by professional library staff.
  • MEDLINE Plus frequently asked questions

    This page covers information about Ovid (the supplier of BMA's MEDLINE Plus) and the Ovid software, the MEDLINE database, search skills, training and courses, and ordering full text of articles from the BMA Library. The MEDLINE Plus helpdesk is staffed between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Contact us by phone on 020 7383 6224 or email: info.medline@bma.org.uk.
  • Request a search - free

    Request a search - free
  • Update service - free

    Link to Update service
  • How to order photocopies

    Ordering online an electronic copy of something you found on the MEDLINE Plus system
  • Terms and conditions

    MEDLINE Plus terms and conditions

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