To undertake a technical review of the search interface of the ISPOR Presentations Database. By technical review, we mean an evaluation of the technical aspects of the search interface and functionality, which a user must navigate to complete a search.

A validated checklist (Bethel and Rogers, 2014, Health Info Libr J, 31, 43-53) was used to identify where the interface performed well, where the interface was adequate, where the interface performed poorly, where functionality available in core biomedical bibliographic databases does not exist in the ISPOR database, and to establish a list of any issues arising during the review. Two researchers independently undertook the technical review in October 2021.

The ISPOR database scored 35 of a possible 165 (27/111 essential criteria and 8/54 desirable criteria). Two issues arising were identified, both of which will cause searchers to miss potentially eligible abstracts: (i) that search terms, which include * or ? as truncation or wildcard symbols should not be capitalized (e.g., cost* not Cost*; organi?ation not Organi?ation) and (ii) that quotation marks should be straight sided in phrase searching (e.g., “cost analyses” not “cost analyses”).

The ISPOR database is a promising and free database to identify abstracts/posters presented at ISPOR. We summarize two key issues arising, and we set out proposed changes to the search interface, including: adding the ability to export abstracts to a bibliographic tool, exporting search strategies, adding a researcher account, and updating the help guide. All suggestions will further improve this helpful database.