This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
In my last blog post, I said one of the things I like so much about MedlinePlus (a service of the National Library of Medicine, or NLM) is that “the medical librarians at the NLM have already done a lot of the heavy lifting for you.”
I thought I’d give more detail about what I mean, using the same example I gave last time: a search for trustworthy information about “throat cancer.”
You can find a screenshot of the general search results in my last post. If you do this on the live site, you may get slightly different results, depending on when you do it, as the information is updated daily.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Here I want to zoom in on the very first result to my basic query. . .
There are two things to point out:
1) This is a ranked listing of results that starts with general information and becomes more specific as you go down the list. Behind the scenes, the medical librarians at the NLM have programmed a complex search algorithm to create the ranking that doesn’t depend on popularity or number of links but instead on the scientific quality of the information.
2) Any time you see the National Library of Medicine in parentheses next to a search result, you know that you’ve hit one of the 900 general health topics that have already been curated by the NLM. (See arrow above.)
So, now I click on the first link (circled in the screenshot above).
That brings me to this page with general symptoms and anatomy and leads me to perhaps one of my best tips for getting the most out of any MedlinePlus search, which is always scroll all the way to the bottom of any page you get for your search results!
If you scroll through, you’ll get about four more windows-worth (depending on the size of your computer display) of automated search results broken out by “overviews,” “latest news,” “diagnosis/symptoms,” “journal articles,” etc.
(Click on these thumbnails for a larger view)
You may notice the categories are NOT in alphabetical order. This is another ranked list that has been generated based on the algorithms programmed by the information specialists at the NLM. As before, the lists go from the general to the specific. Once you understand the logic behind the search algorithm, it’s like having the services of a medical librarian for free! (Great use of our tax dollars, if you ask me.)
I missed this incredibly valuable point for several weeks while using MedlinePlus at first because I typically don’t scroll all the way down a website page. I have since learned the error of my ways—and gotten to a heck of a lot of useful medical information—particularly from the section on journal articles—that much faster as a result.
Stayed tuned for more of my tips for getting the most out of online medical searching in upcoming posts.
Was this information helpful? Let me know in the comments section. Or share your own search tips.
This post is the second in a series of posts about various tips and tricks for online medical searches that I’ve picked up over the years. I also plan to include a bunch of other people’s hard-won habits for finding just the right study, clinical trial or care-giving guide.
By gathering these pointers in one place, I hope these blog posts will help people get up to speed faster if they suddenly find themselves needing to research a health condition or understand treatment options. Each post is tagged “how-to-search-medical-info” so you can see what else has been covered and find other installments in the series.
If you have something meaningful to contribute, please use the comments section below. If this project starts gaining momentum, we’ll figure out a more efficient way to collect and rate your tips and ideas.
Previous posts include:
The Quest: Practical Advice for Online Medical Searches