pubmed-metaanalysis Skill

What I Do

Search PubMed for meta-analyses and systematic reviews on medical topics using the NCBI E-utilities API. I help you:

Find meta-analyses on specific medical conditions, treatments, or interventions
Retrieve article titles, authors, publication dates, and abstracts
Filter results to focus on systematic reviews and meta-analyses only

When to Use Me

Use this skill when you need to:

Look up meta-analyses on a medical topic
Find systematic reviews for evidence-based research
Get an overview of aggregated research on a health topic

How to Search PubMed for Meta-Analyses

Step 1: Search for Article IDs

Use the NCBI ESearch API to find meta-analyses. The key is adding the meta-analysis[pt] publication type filter.

Base URL:

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi

Required Parameters:

db=pubmed - Search the PubMed database
term=<SEARCH_QUERY>+AND+meta-analysis[pt] - Your search term + meta-analysis filter
retmax=20 - Number of results to return (adjust as needed)
retmode=json - Return JSON format

Example Search URL:

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&term=diabetes+treatment+AND+meta-analysis[pt]&retmax=20&retmode=json

Alternative Filters:

systematic+review[pt] - For systematic reviews
(meta-analysis[pt]+OR+systematic+review[pt]) - For both types

Step 2: Fetch Article Details

Use the NCBI ESummary or EFetch API to get article details using the IDs from Step 1.

ESummary (for basic info):

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esummary.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=<ID1>,<ID2>,<ID3>&retmode=json

EFetch (for full abstract):

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=<ID1>,<ID2>,<ID3>&rettype=abstract&retmode=text

Step 3: Parse and Present Results

From ESummary JSON response, extract:

title - Article title
authors - List of authors (use first author + "et al." for brevity)
pubdate - Publication date
source - Journal name
uid - PubMed ID (PMID)

Complete Example Workflow

Search for meta-analyses on "hypertension treatment":

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=pubmed&term=hypertension+treatment+AND+meta-analysis[pt]&retmax=10&retmode=json

Get details for returned IDs (e.g., 12345678,23456789):

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esummary.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=12345678,23456789&retmode=json

Get full abstracts:

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi?db=pubmed&id=12345678,23456789&rettype=abstract&retmode=text

Search Tips

Effective Search Terms

Use MeSH terms when possible (e.g., "Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2"[Mesh])
Combine terms with AND or OR
Use quotes for exact phrases: "cognitive behavioral therapy"

Common Filters

| Filter | Description | |--------|-------------| | meta-analysis[pt] | Meta-analyses only | | systematic+review[pt] | Systematic reviews only | | review[pt] | All review articles | | free+full+text[filter] | Only free full-text articles | | humans[mh] | Human studies only | | english[la] | English language only |

Date Filtering

Add date range to search:

2020:2024[dp] - Publication date range
"last 5 years"[dp] - Relative date

Example with date filter:

term=cancer+immunotherapy+AND+meta-analysis[pt]+AND+2020:2024[dp]

Output Format

When presenting results, use this format:

### Meta-Analyses Found: [N] results

1. **[Title]**
   - Authors: [First Author] et al.
   - Journal: [Journal Name], [Year]
   - PMID: [ID] | Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/[ID]/

2. **[Title]**
   ...

Rate Limits

NCBI allows ~3 requests per second - be mindful of this when making multiple searches
Always URL-encode search terms with special characters

Agent Skills: pubmed-metaanalysis

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