Abstract

The terms “real-world evidence” and “real-world data” have become common in the past 5 years. In a recent PubMed search, the number of publications that included these terms in the title and abstract has increased by more than 17 times—from 177 articles in 2014 to 3036 articles in early 2019. Despite the growing interest and research in this area, PubMed (as of March 1, 2019) does not include a Medical Subject Headings term for either “real-world evidence” or “real-world data,” which makes finding all the relevant literature in this evolving area all the more challenging.