Searching the physiotherapy evidence-based literature

In physiotherapy practice, like all other health professions, questions arise during the course of patient care for which answers need to be obtained from the health care literature. In order to use the literature effectively to address clinical problems, one must know how to search efficiently, including matching the best resource type to the question and being able to identify high quality information. Using a physiotherapy case scenario for a question concerning treatment, we explore the features of large literature databases, compilations of distilled research such as abstract journals, and the Internet to find efficient ways to answer questions that arise during the course of clinical practice.