pubmed-metaanalysis_skill

Overview

This skill searches PubMed for meta-analyses and systematic reviews on specified medical topics using the NCBI E-utilities API. It returns article metadata and abstracts and helps filter results to meta-analyses or systematic reviews only. The skill is designed to speed evidence discovery for clinicians, researchers, and students.

How this skill works

It performs an ESearch query against the PubMed database with a publication-type filter such as meta-analysis[pt] or systematic+review[pt] to retrieve PMIDs. It then calls ESummary or EFetch with those PMIDs to fetch title, authors, publication date, journal, PMID, and abstract. Results are parsed and presented in a concise list with direct PubMed links.

When to use it

• When you need a quick list of meta-analyses on a clinical question or intervention
• When preparing evidence summaries, guidelines, or literature reviews
• To verify aggregated evidence before designing a study or trial
• When teaching or demonstrating how to locate high-level evidence
• To screen for recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses within a date range

Best practices

• Include meta-analysis[pt] or systematic+review[pt] in the term to restrict results
• Use MeSH terms or quoted phrases for more precise searches (e.g., "Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2"[Mesh])
• Apply date and language filters (e.g., 2020:2024[dp], english[la]) to narrow results
• Respect NCBI rate limits (~3 requests/sec) and URL-encode special characters
• Fetch details in batches (ESummary/EFetch) to reduce API calls and simplify parsing

Example use cases

• Find meta-analyses on hypertension treatments published in the last 5 years
• Retrieve systematic reviews comparing surgical vs non-surgical interventions for a condition
• Compile titles, first author, journal, year, and PMID for an evidence table
• Get full abstracts for a shortlist of meta-analyses to assess relevance
• Search for free full-text meta-analyses using free+full+text[filter]