Making Sense of The Internet Leon Geffen MBChB MCFP(SA) http://users.iafrica.com/l/lg/lgeffen lgeffen@iafrica.com

The Minefield of Misinformation Don't believe everything you read Does the information sound plausible Are the authors listed and are they credible Are the references published Beware of sites providing information from "paid" sponsors Is the information published by a credible institution, organisation or society ?

Searching the Internet Search Directories Yahoo Excite Search Engines Google Altavista

Effective use of search engines 1/2 Add as many words as possible city park hospital “ ” marks "city park hospital" Be specific & ask a question Is City Park Hospital in Cape Town The + symbol "City Park Hospital" +radiology

Effective use of search engines 2/2 The - symbol "New York City" -"World Trade Centre" -bomb -terrorist -war Combining all three "New York City" -"World Trade Centre" -bomb -terrorist -war +ballet +opera +dance Finding specific information from a known domain (e.g country, educational facility, government etc.) "family medicine" +host:za HIV or AIDS +host:gov.za +Mbeki

Medline 1/3 Medline is owned & maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in Washington DC. It is a bibliographic database covering all medical sciences including medicine, nursing, preclinical sciences, veterinary medicine & dentistry. It covers journals published in all languages which are cited in Index Medicus®, as well as the abstracts . All publications from 1966 to present can be found in   Medline. Approximately  3800 journals are indexed, with 9 200 000 records on file. It is updated weekly, except in November & December. About 31 000 records are added each month. It provides for powerful searching tools using a number of fields e.g Author name, journal name & Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) One can build search queries to be reused as and when necessary

Medline 2/3 Approximately  3800 journals are indexed, with 9 500 000 records on file. It is updated weekly, except in November & December. About 31 000 records are added each month. It provides for powerful searching tools using a number of fields e.g Author name, journal name & Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) One can build search queries to be reused as and when necessary

Medline 3/3 Family Medicine Journals published in the past 90 days Paediatric Journals published in last 30 days Geriatric Journals published in last 60 days Advanced Pubmed search Basic Pubmed search Medline Plus provides access to dictionaries, Pubmed, health topics, US consumer organisations etc. Dementia Assessment tools List of journals with links to their homepages

Sites Worth Bookmarking Medline CDC Medmatrix Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality SA Medical Research Council SA Healthinfo MDconsult

Online Journals Nature initiative BMJ freemedicaljournals.com free journals University of Iowa free journals The Lancet The NEJM

Nature Initiative Online debate about many aspects of the future of the electronic literature Ways to improve access to the scientific literature Proposals for making research papers free Changing the application of copyright.