Protocol Development
To assist network members, the Mayo Clinic Health System Practice-Based Research Network (MCHS PBRN) has developed a program to aid in protocol development.
We can help you step-by-step from the idea stage to protocol design and development. If you have a problem that you'd like to address with research methods, contact Lisa M. Schrader to begin the process.
Performing a literature search
This is a very important first step in a research study. In addition to becoming familiar with the literature, you want to make sure your research question (hypothesis) has not already been answered. Some resources include:
- PubMed — more than 22 million biomedical literature citations from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books
- MEDLINE — the National Library of Medicine's bibliographic database with more than 19 million references to journal articles in life sciences, particularly related to biomedicine
- Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) — the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus
- Conducting a literature search — an online tutorial from the University of Southern Maine
Find Mayo Clinic on