This guide will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
The purpose of this guide is to help you identify technologies and assays used to measure a biomarker of interest for patients with a specific indication, by:
- Exploring all procedures monitoring biomarker X in disease Y, by selecting specific UMLS filters
- Performing a direct search between investigative techniques with biomarker X in disease Y
Step 0: Login
Refer to https://med.causaly.com
TIP! In case you’ve forgotten your password, you can recover it here.
Approach A: Search for procedures used to monitor biomarker X in disease Y
Step 1. Use the Intelligent Search to look for technologies/assays used to measure biomarker X
Access the Intelligent Search by selecting the Intelligent search tab in the Causaly homepage (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Select the Intelligent Search option in the Causaly homepage
Begin your search by adding the biomarker of interest in the input box and selecting the most relevant Concept from the suggestions below. To explore the technologies used to measure a biomarker of interest, add the necessary search terms (i.e. technologies, assays) in the input box and select the most relevant search topic from the suggestions below (Figure 2).
Example: Technologies used for the measurement of VEGFA (link)
Figure 2. In Intelligent Search, explore the technologies used to measure a biomarker of interest by typing keywords and selecting the most relevant search topic from the suggestions below.
TIP! As you type, the system suggests relevant Concepts below with the associated amount of evidence on the right. Based on your research objectives, you can select the Concept most relevant to your search.
Browse your results and investigate the different technologies used to measure VEGFA presented in an interactive dendrogram view (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Explore results presented in an interactive dendrogram view
TIP!
- Before exploring the dendrogram, review the filters that the system has selected by default as technologies used for the measurement of a biomarker of interest on the left-hand side.
- Clicking on a technique of interest in the dendrogram view will reveal a sidebar with the supporting evidence for that relationship. You can further explore the evidence by clicking on the “Inspect” button at the top of this sidebar.
Step 2: Use additional keywords to refine your search
To find technologies used for the measurement of biomarker X in a subpopulation of interest, use additional keywords in the input box. The proposed search topics will now change depending on the new keyword and you can explore the results by clicking on the search topic of interest.
Example: Technologies used to measure VEGFA gene in breast cancer patients (link) (Figure 4)
Figure 4. To identify technologies and assays used to monitor a specific biomarker in a patient subpopulation, type additional keywords in the input box and select the appropriate search topic from the suggestions below
TIP! Click on the “Save” button to save your search and create alerts to receive notifications when new data regarding a relationship of interest becomes available (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Click on the “Save” button to save your searches.
Approach B: Search for the direct relationship between a technology of interest used to measure biomarker X
With Intelligent Search, you can investigate the use of a specific technique for the measurement of biomarker X by investigating the direct relationship between the two. Similar to Approach A, add your keywords in the input box and select the most relevant search topic from the suggestions below.
Example: The relationship between Western blot and VEGFA gene (link) (Figure 6)
Figure 6. Investigate the direct relationship between Western blot and VEGFA gene
Explore the results displayed by default in the Article view (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Explore articles regarding the use of Western blot for the measurement of VEGFA
TIP! Click on an article title of interest to view the abstract in the sidebar