Nutrition Services

Best Bet: Topic Alerts

Topic alerts allow you to build a search, save it, and receive regular updates on the topic. You can search broadly or narrowly depending on your specialty and interest. You determine the search parameters + exactly how often you receive email alerts.

This strategy works very well if you are doing research, writing, or exploring a particular topic (e.g., therapies and interventions for COPD). It may not be as effective to keep up broadly with your field (e.g., hot topics in emergency medicine) or for "cocktail" knowledge.

To set up an Alert or Saved Search, develop a good search strategy in your favorite medical literature database, save it, and tell it to send you updates as often as you'd like (typically daily, weekly, monthly, or whenever a new article is published on the topic).

The library will be happy to set up an expert search alert on the topic(s) of your choice. Contact us.

DIY

• PubMed:  Save Searches and Set Email Alerts via MyNCBI

Here's a quick video tutorial: https://youtu.be/WbFjV91YNNY or ask an Inova librarian to show you.

• CINAHL: set up search alert

TOC's, Podcasts, & RSS Feeds

• Subscribe to electronic tables of contents (eTOC) of your specialty journals (and maybe the journal heavyweights like NEJM, JAMA, etc).

You can usually do this from the journal’s website, it’s free, and you get an email every time a new issue is published.  This strategy is great for general awareness and keeping up with your colleagues.
 

Ask the library to email you the Table of Contents of your favorite journal(s).

• Many journals and professional organizations also offer podcasts & RSS/News feeds
  These feeds often cover subtopics (e.g., geriatric-focused articles published in JAMA), recent news, and other happenings related to the journal.

  • Nutrition.gov News

  • Eat Right Pro News Center

  • ASPEN Food for Thought blog  

  • SmartBrief News for Nutrition & Dietetics
    • Create your own SmartBrief

  • CDC RSS Feeds

  • FDA Drug Recall Information

  Use a feed reader to curate and manage your feeds.

  Feedly is a good reader for personalizing your "news" feed.

• Evidence Updates
  Create article alerts customized by specialty and relevance. Articles rated by clinical impact and newsworthiness. Created by the BMJ and McMaster University.

• MyNCBI
  ​Email notifications for new articles from specific journals or saved searches. Create collections of articles to read later as you search.