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Help > Searching Tools
QualityTools, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides you with two options for searching:
The QualityTools Search and Detailed search options support the use of the Boolean operators, parenthetical grouping, and wildcard/truncation characters.
| Words entered this way: | Will be searched in a way that: |
|---|---|
| Diabetes | Finds the word diabetes -- No variations |
| "diabet*" | Finds the word diabetes, diabetic, and other word ending variations |
| (breast or prostate) AND cancer | Finds the the terms breast and cancer or the terms prostate and cancer |
| "heart failure" | Finds the exact phrase heart failure |
| diabetes AND pregnancy | Finds the words diabetes and pregnancy anywhere in the tool summary |
| colon OR colorectal | Finds the word colon or the word colorectal, but not necessarily both |
The Boolean operator "AND" narrows a search, retrieving only those tools containing at least one term from each concept. The AND operator is very good for narrowing a search to retrieve those tools most relevant to your topic.
The Boolean operator "OR" broadens a search, retrieving all tools containing at least one of the search concepts entered, but not necessarily both. The OR operator is very good for linking synonyms or related concepts in order to retrieve as many relevant tools as possible.
You can also use parentheses to construct your search strategies. See example in Search Tips section above.
You can find plural forms of words or word-stems using the '*'. Asterisks can be placed at the start of a term or at the end or a term.
The use of double quotation marks around your search phrase (e.g., "prostate cancer screening") is recommended if you would like to narrow your search to find summaries that contain the specific phrase. This search is more likely to retrieve content specifically related to your search expression.
The use of double quotation marks is required for complex searches that include multiple phrases and/or Boolean operators, parenthetical grouping, or wildcard/truncation characters. For instance, when your search query contains an operator, you must enclose any multi-word phrase in double-quotation marks. Take for example the following search expression:
Aspirin AND "Cardiovascular Disease" AND (Mortality OR "Death*")
Note the use of double quotation marks around the phrase "Cardiovascular disease" and around the wildcard/truncation for "Death*".
QualityTools will attempt to find the terms or phrases specified in your search query within the text of the tool summary. If you are looking for a tool related to a specific phrase, we recommend that you enclose your phrase in quotes.
Once you have entered your search criteria, click on the "Search" button to
run the search and the results will appear on your screen.
QualityTools will automatically return your search results sorted by relevance, with the most relevant tools listed first. This is derived through the use of a term-weighting algorithm.
An alternative option for sorting your search results by publication date is available through the Detailed Search.
From the search results page, you can:
When I enter my search term, what is QualityTools searching?
QualityTools searches the contents of the Tool summary for any tool. QualityTools also searches the contents of the tool provided at the developer's external Web site. This is done through a Web Crawl feature.
Is the QualityTools search engine case sensitive?
No, QualityTools searches do not recognize the difference between upper and lower case letters.
My search returned a results page stating "no tools were found" -- Why doesn't QualityTools have any tools on my topic?
It is possible that a search may not find any tools matching the criteria you specified. This can happen for several reasons:
Sometimes when searching, I hit the "Back" button of my browser and get a "Page Cannot be Displayed" error message. Is there something I can do to prevent this error?
This problem is related to your Internet browser settings, particularly if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). You may be able to resolve this issue by changing your browser settings:
