Staying up to date with healthcare and research

Stay informed about the latest developments in healthcare and research by subscribing to bulletins, alerts, and news services tailored to your professional interests.

Staying current with evidence isn’t about reading everything. It’s about having the right information delivered to you at the right time in a format you’ll use. You might find our blog post on how to build your personal evidence dashboard useful.

Register for a tailored database alert, request journal table of contents alerts, or sign up to a Kent and Medway current Awareness Bulletin - all delivered direct to your inbox.

Register for an alert

Bulletins and alerting services

Sign up for bulletins and newsfeeds from external organisations or create personalised alerts to deliver relevant journal articles directly to you.

Healthcare and NHS resources

Specialist healthcare bulletins

Health policy and research organisations

  • Health Foundation – News and updates on health improvement and policy
  • The Kings Fund – Email updates including leadership newsletters, health management alerts, wellbeing bulletins, and integrated care system highlights
  • Nuffield Trust – Weekly newsletter covering vital issues in health and care policy
  • GOV.UK Email Alerts – Customise alerts by department (such as Department of Health), topic, policy, or official
  • Full Fact – Weekly email updates for fact-checked health claims and misinformation alerts

Journals and books

Get notifications when new articles or issues are published in your favourite journals. Many publishers offer table of contents (TOC) alerts or eAlert services

How to set up journal alerts

Visit the homepage of journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, or NEJM and look for links to sign up for TOC or eAlert services.

Not sure what journals are relevant to you? Use Browzine to find journals by title or subject.

New books

Stay informed about new additions to our collection using our new books list on the library catalogue.

Database alerts

Create automated search alerts to receive regular updates on new articles matching your interests

Setting up database alerts

  1. Create an account in your chosen database (such as Medline or CINAHL)
  2. Create and save your evidence search
  3. Set up an alert to receive automatic updates at your preferred intervals

This approach is ideal for maintaining highly specific updates on complex clinical or professional topics.

You might find our how to set up an Ovid Medline AutoAlert blog post useful.

Subject-based alerts on the Knowledge and Library Hub

  1. Run a search on the Knowledge and Library Hub
  2. On the search results page, click the three-dot menu icon (⋮) on the right side.
  3. Select Create alert as shown below. You will be prompted to sign into your My Ebsco account or register for an account.

Watch the video: How do I set up an alert?

For help setting up database alerts, email mtw-tr.clinical.librarians@nhs.net.

RSS feeds

RSS feeds deliver automatic updates on topics of interest

Choose an RSS reader such as Feedly, InoReader, or Microsoft Outlook, then add your preferred sources including key blogs, research organisations, specialty society websites, Cochrane Library, NICE Evidence Search, and PubMed searches.

Podcasts

Expand your learning through audio content:

  • BMJ Journal podcasts – Podcasts from BMJ and other medical journals
  • Inside Health – BBC Radio 4’s regular health programme
  • Royal Society of Medicine – The RSM has produced a number of podcasts focusing on the latest topics in healthcare
  • RCP Medicine Podcast – a discussion of different topics relevant to physicians. Episodes discuss and explore different topics including real-life clinical cases, new evidence-based guidelines and specific physician issues in the modern healthcare environment.
  • The Resus Room – Evidence-based emergency medicine podcasts, focussed on practice in and around the resus room.
  • Anaesthesia on Air – the podcast from the Royal College of Anaesthetists.