Medical World Search is a unique search engine for medicine that
understands medical terminology, is selective, comprehensive,
and interactive, can query other search engines, and allows precise,
targeted searches. It also remembers query history for registered
users, and has a discussion forum. These unique features allow
medical practitioners, researchers, or anyone with a basic
medical knowledge, to formulate an optimally precise query and
find exactly the information they need.
Understands Medical Terminology
Unlike more generic search engines, Medical World Search understands
medical terminology, which it can use to automatically expand or
narrow search parameters.
Selective
In contrast to search engines such as Altavista and Infoseek,
Medical World Search does not include sites in its index
indiscriminately. Medical World Search staff and collaborators
select the best medical sites for inclusion. The
selection process of sites
included ensures
that Medical World Search will help you find informative, high quality,
accurate medical information.
Comprehensive
Medical World Search has an index of all words and medical terms
appearing in tens of thousands of Web pages corresponding to thousands
of selected medical sites, including the Merck Manual, Oncolink,
Medscape, and the Virtual Hospital. So medical practitioners,
researchers or seekers of health information can search the full text
of all such pages with one single search.
Interactive
Medical World Search's highly interactive interface can
guide the user in refining the search process and adapt
itself to the requirements of the researcher.
By clicking on the search terms entered, information is
displayed concerning synonyms, definitions, more general
and more specific terms that can greatly enhance the ability
of the researcher to make more intelligent queries.
Can Query Other Search Engines
In addition to searching its own resources, it can send
complex queries based on its incorporated thesaurus to
other specified search engines. This means that searches can be as
comprehensive and yet as precise as possible.
Precise, Targeted Searches
It can expand a simple term such as "heart disease" into
potentially several hundred heart disease terms and will
search on all of them, including, for instance, "heart
attack"; "myocardial infarction"; "infarction of heart";
"myocardial infarct"; "infarct, myocardium";
"infarction, myocardium"; and "cardiac infarction" plus hundreds of
others.
In order to determine which documents are the most
relevant to the user's query, Medical World Search examines
the number of times medical terms are mentioned in each entry,
and ranks them accordingly, thus
making for more precise, targeted searches.
Will Recall History for Registered Users
When logged in as a registered user, you can use the
following features:
Recall your last ten queries
Medical World Search will remember your last ten queries and
you will be able to view and submit them again. To recall your
last ten queries, go to the link marked "Last ten queries".
This page shows your last ten queries, with each time the
search action (such as Search Major Sites or Altavista) and
the query entered. To resubmit the query, go to the
link marked "Resubmit this Query". You can also view the full
details on your queries by going to the link marked
"Full Details".
Recall the last ten sites you visited
-- Medical World Search will remember the last ten medical
sites that you visited from its results page and you will be
able to go back to them. Whenever you search using the search
action "Search Major Sites", and you then go to one of the
links shown in the search results, this link is recorded in
your history. To view the last ten sites which you have visited,
go to the link marked "Last ten sites visited". You are presented
with a list of these sites. The site that you visited most
recently is shown first. Note that if for your query you
used the search action "or Altavista" or any other external
searches, the sites that you visit from the Altavista results
page are not recalled.
Has a Discussion Forum
Medical World Search has an accompanying discussion forum, that allows
users to discuss searches and possible improvements. This fosters a sense
of community and allows users to help each other as well as give feedback
to developers.
