Written and maintained by CASRAI Editorial Board
Last updated
Not medical advice. This page describes a reference product and how its search interface is laid out. It is not clinical guidance for any patient or situation.
ClinicalKey is Elsevier’s clinical decision support platform. Clinicians, students and librarians use it to look up clinical overviews, drug monographs, guidelines, reference books, journals and procedure videos in one place. This page explains what it contains, who it is sold to, the search controls named in Elsevier’s help pages, and which other databases a researcher might use alongside it.
What ClinicalKey is
Elsevier describes ClinicalKey as a clinical decision support platform. Its content is a mix of formats rather than a single index of journal articles: clinical overviews, drug monographs, guidelines from leading organizations, reference books, journals, procedure videos and other multimedia. Elsevier’s product page does not give counts for any of these, so none are stated here.
It is a licensed product, not an open database. That is the main practical difference from a free index such as PubMed, and it is why most people reach it through a hospital, clinic or university library rather than by creating their own account.
Who runs it and what it covers
Elsevier publishes ClinicalKey. Its product page names physicians, nurses, pharmacists and students as the intended users. The platform is sold in several editions, each with its own help section on Elsevier’s support site:
- ClinicalKey – the main clinician-facing platform.
- ClinicalKey Nursing – a nursing edition. Its search drop-down and filters are described separately in Elsevier’s help pages.
- ClinicalKey Student – the student edition, with its own help section and slightly different filter labels (for example a “Content Type” section on the results page).
- ClinicalKey AI – an AI feature that Elsevier says is powered by responsible AI and draws on trusted, evidence-based clinical content, with source transparency, to give insights at the point of care.
Elsevier also mentions a mobile app for access away from a desktop.
How access is sold
Elsevier lists two routes. Institutional subscriptions are aimed at hospitals, clinics and academic institutions. Individual subscriptions are offered monthly or yearly across 43 specialty packages. A researcher who cannot open ClinicalKey from home should ask their institution’s library which edition, if any, it licenses. The sign-in link is on the ClinicalKey homepage; Elsevier’s help site covers account questions.
How to search ClinicalKey
The steps below follow Elsevier’s own help articles on refining a search and on the Clinical Focus filter (read 2026-11-08). Interface labels can differ slightly between the main, Nursing and Student editions.
- Pick a content type before you search. In ClinicalKey and ClinicalKey Nursing, use the drop-down menu beside the “Search” box. In ClinicalKey Student, the drop-down sits beside the search bar on the homepage.
- Use “Clinical Focus” if you want a defined bundle. It is the last option in the drop-down. Choose it, enter your term, then run the search. It has to be set before you search; it cannot be added once results are showing.
- Search by citation if you already have a reference. Type the citation into the “Search” field in the layout Elsevier shows, for example
Am Heart J. 2009 Apr 28;53(17):1475-87. - Narrow by date. On the results page, the drop-down labelled “Date” selects a range.
- Narrow by content type. Use the interactive filter on the left of the results page to pick one or more types (in the Student edition it is the “Content Type” section).
- Narrow by specialty. The left-side filters also list specialties alphabetically, and you can select more than one.
What “Clinical Focus” includes
Elsevier lists these content types inside Clinical Focus: Clinical Overviews, Drug monographs, Guidelines, Images, Journal guideline articles, Patient education, Procedure videos and Videos. Once results appear, further narrowing is done with the “Filter By” menu on the left rather than by re-applying Clinical Focus.
Strengths and limits
Strengths, as Elsevier documents them: several content formats behind one search box; faceted filtering by content type, date and specialty; citation lookup in the search field; and, in the AI edition, a stated emphasis on source transparency.
Limits that follow from the same sources: access depends on a subscription, so the platform is not usable for open literature searching by anyone without one; Clinical Focus must be chosen before the search, which surprises users who try to add it afterwards; and the edition you have determines which labels and filters you see.
Alternatives and companions
| Resource | What its own page says | Access |
|---|---|---|
| PubMed (National Library of Medicine, NCBI) | A search tool for biomedical and life sciences literature with more than 40 million citations and abstracts; it does not itself hold full-text articles but links to full text where available (NLM “About PubMed”, read 2026-11-08). | Free |
| ClinicalKey (Elsevier) | Clinical decision support platform with overviews, drug monographs, guidelines, books, journals and videos (Elsevier product page, read 2026-11-08). | Institutional or individual subscription |
CASRAI has separate explainers for other literature and evidence databases: Embase, the Trip Database, Epistemonikos and Scopus AI. If you are weighing a free index, Is PubMed reliable? explains what MEDLINE selection does and does not tell you, and the PubMed Advanced Search Builder guide covers its query tools. The MEDLINE entry defines the database behind much of PubMed.
FAQ
Is ClinicalKey free?
No. Elsevier sells it through institutional subscriptions (hospitals, clinics, academic institutions) and through individual monthly or yearly subscriptions across 43 specialty packages.
What is the difference between ClinicalKey, ClinicalKey Student, ClinicalKey Nursing and ClinicalKey AI?
They are editions or features of the Elsevier platform. Student and Nursing have their own help sections and some different filter labels; ClinicalKey AI is the AI-assisted feature Elsevier describes as drawing on its evidence-based clinical content with source transparency.
Is there a ClinicalKey app?
Elsevier’s product page mentions a mobile app for accessing the platform away from a desktop. Whether you can use it depends on your subscription.
Why can’t I add Clinical Focus after I search?
Elsevier’s help page states that Clinical Focus must be selected from the search drop-down before the search is run. After results appear, use the “Filter By” menu on the left instead.
Where do I sign in?
Use the sign-in link on the ClinicalKey homepage, or ask your institution’s library for its access route.
Sources
- Elsevier, ClinicalKey product page, read 2026-11-08.
- Elsevier Support, How do I refine my search or filter my results?, read 2026-11-08.
- Elsevier Support, How do I use the Clinical Focus filter?, read 2026-11-08.
- National Library of Medicine, About PubMed, read 2026-11-08.
