title: [The neurologist and the medical literature: the process of endless education].
abstract: To keep up to date with new advances in medical care and in the understanding of the disease process which affects their specific patients neurologists need to develop strategies for continuing education. They must be learners throughout their careers and the learning must be self-directed, active and independent. The best way to reach this goal is to devote regular time to the medical literature. However as the great volume of journal literature precludes clinicians from reading all of it, special tactics of scanning, selecting and reading medical articles are necessary. Priority should be given to original reports, meaning first-hand accounts of planned investigations, as they go through expert critical review before publication. This safeguard improves their clarity and usually keeps flawed research away. Furthermore one should read only original articles that have direct bearing on his own clinical practice and with scientific rigor making the results likely to be true. Employment of these rules may reduce the relevant literature to an affordable size. Extraction of these articles depend on the regular surveillance of high-yield, high-circulation general medical journals and the specialty and subspecialty journals which are relevant to one's practice. Review articles may be helpful either as an initial approach to a subject whose current knowledge is beyond one's usual domain or as a source of references of original articles. Meta-analysis or the integration and statistical combination of the results of previous research may be a further and a most important advantage of reviews.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brasil.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lana-Peixoto
mesh_terms: D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D009462:Neurology / Q000193:education*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic
vernacular_title: O neurologista e a literatura médica: o processo de educação interminável.