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 researching a particular topic. It is not as effective to keep up broadly with your field (e.g., Latest News in Family Medicine).
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).
PubMed: Save Searches and Set Email Alerts via MyNCBI
You can sign up for electronic table of contents delivery at most journal websites. [TIP: Don’t overwhelm yourself – stick to a manageable # of journals.]
NEJM Emails, Podcasts, and Feeds
Professional and government organizations also offer feeds and podcasts.
Evidence Alerts
Create article alerts customized by specialty and relevance. Articles rated by clinical impact and newsworthiness. Created by the BMJ and McMaster University.
MedWorm is a medical RSS feed provider that compiles news from over 6,000 authoritative data sources. You can view the feeds many ways, by medical condition, specialty, top 100 articles, and more.
Physician’s First Watch is a free daily alert on current news that affects your practice — from medical journals, government agencies, scientific conferences, and major media reports.
2 Minute Medicine is a physician publishing group from Harvard Medical School. Their reports review and summarize high-impact and current medical literature. Click here to subscribe to free daily updates.
Top 20 Social Networks for Doctors and Healthcare Professionals
Each bi-weekly issue of Current UpDate highlights a few of the recent, important additions to our "What's New" and "Practice Changing UpDates" topics.