S C I E N T I F I C   C Y B E R N A U T S

TIPS FOR CLINICAL MEDICINE
RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET

by Dale Graham Ph.D., DCRT, and the members of
The WorldWideWeb Interest Group (WIG)

With this article, we launch a series on the most useful WorldWideWeb sites for biomedical researchers. To compile these lists of biomedicine's best bookmarks, we solicited nominations from the eclectic group of scientists who are members of NIH's WorldWideWeb Interest Group (see box). WIG members contributed more than 300 sites of biomedical interest, and we will be showcasing these sites by general topic in the months to come.

To access these sites, you will need a web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer. Once it has opened, select "Open Location" or "Open URL" from the File menu and type the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) you wish to visit in the box that appears. Typically, these URLs, or web site addresses, begin <http://>.

More than 130 sites were suggested by members of WIG that fell under the category of clinical medicine. * From these suggestions, we selected sites that seemed to be the most useful in terms of breadth and general interest. The URL for the sites listed in this article as well as other recommended pages is < http://mantis.dcrt.nih.gov/Sites/Clinical.html>.

The easiest way to browse all of these sites is by opening this URL and then clicking on the highlighted name of any sites of interest to you. This will take you directly to the site without having to type in its URL. If any of these sites strike you as pages you will want to visit again, be sure to add them to your hotlist of bookmarks. To add a bookmark to your list, pull down the menu under "Bookmarks" and click on the first item, "Add bookmark." If you are using Internet Explorer, the equivalent terms are "Favorites" and "Add Favorite."

Medical News Services

Two of the more interesting were Reuter's Health Information and the Science in the Headlines sites.

Reuters Health Information,
URL = <http://www.reutershealth.com/>

Reuter's site provides daily medical and health-related news written for the health-care professional. It includes a "Case of the Week" and links to medical sites reviewed by Reuters physician editors. Fully searchable news.

National Research Council's Science in the Headlines,
URL = <http://www2.nas.edu/new/index.html>

Each year, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine produce hundreds of reports that examine a range of issues from AIDS to obesity to science education, nuclear waste, and more. This site provides a daily summary of issues in the news with links to press releases and summaries of related reports written by volunteer committees of the nation's top experts.

On-line Journals

There are many on-line journals, especially in the specialty areas. The offerings at these kinds of sites vary widely, from full-text articles to just tables of contents. I have chosen just one site, from a most prominent journal with fairly robust offerings.

New England Journal of Medicine,
URL = <http://www.nejm.org/>

You might also wish to browse the NIH Library's web site, which has links to full-text articles available through special NIH subscriptions and not available elsewhere. Note: some of these journals do require that the user have a PC in order to use the Ovid system, so Mac and Unix users must wait until versions for their computers are released. We're told it is on the way. The URL for the NIH Library's on-line journals section is <http://libwww.ncrr.nih.gov/~imagemap/board?185,144#Online Journals and Books>.

Links to Medical Information

American Medical Association,
URL = <http://www.ama-assn.org/>

This is an award-winning site from medicine's largest professional association and major medical publisher. It features news and clinical research summaries from the Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA ), the AMA's nine specialty journals, and the AMA's newspaper, AMNews. JAMA HIV/AIDS offers daily news and peer-reviewed resources. A directory of medical societies and links to AMA-reviewed medical sites are included, as are searchable databases of Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses, residency programs, and more than 650,000 physicians, listed by name, specialty, and location. AMA's site also includes general announcements and texts of AMA speeches and abstracts, press releases, searches from JAMA , AMNews , and AMA specialty journals, plus advocacy information and hotlinks, catalogues, a medical student section, peer-reviewed journals, and an HIV information center.

Hardin's Directories

Martindale's Health Science Guide,
URL = < http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/HSGuide.html>

These pages are for researchers interested in nursing, dental, and veterinary work or the Virtual Medical Center. Hardin's includes general biology site links, anatomy site links, and lots more. In fact, it's so big that it takes a while for the page to load. The site is jam-packed with medical resources.

Hardin Directory of Health Science,
URL = < http://www.arcade.uiowa.edu/hardin-www/subj.html>

The Hardin Directory of Health Science internet resources has a link to the above and to a guide to NIH grants as well as many other links.

Medscape,
URL = <http://www.medscape.com/>

Medscape is an award-winning, free medical web site designed for clinicians and interested consumers. Medscape features include: free Medline searching; original material plus thousands of full-text, peer-reviewed clinical articles from a growing list of contributing medical journals; and eight specialty topic areas; it offers interactive self-assessment features; on-line CME information; daily updates; and free, unlimited access.

MedNet Interactive,
URL = <http://www.mol.net/>

MedNet Interactive™ is an on-line companion to COR Healthcare Resources' print publication, MEDICINE ON THE NET. MEDICINE ON THE NET is a key source for health-care professionals looking for information about medical resources on the Internet, with forums, "Consult the Expert" links, on-line subscriptions, and free sample issues of other COR publications.

Medicine Online Inc.,
URL = <http://www.mol.net/>

Medicine Online Inc. is a WorldWideWeb guide directory of medical-related sites. A medical internet service provider for hospitals and the medical community, Medicine Online provides up-to-date medical resources, information, references, and connections for just about anyone in the medical field. Medicine Online is a link to access the world of medicine.

Links to Pharmacological Information

RXList, Internet Drug Index,
URL = <http://www.rxlist.com/>

RxList allows a "fuzzy" drug name search (you don't have to know how to spell it) of more than 4,000 U.S. products. The Top 200 Prescriptions (two-thirds of all prescriptions written) are linked to generic prescribing information. This drug search site, established by a pharmacist, contains a listing of over 4,000 drugs, including access to a fully searchable database of information on these drugs. This includes indications, side effects, and links tracking particular pharmaceuticals. Try testing out the search capabilities using the new obesity drug recently approved by the FDA: dexfenfluramine, known in the pharmaceutical trade as Redux.

PharmInfoNet,
URL = <http://pharminfo.com/>

Another Web site devoted to pharmaceutical information with links to data and information.

Consensus Development Conference statements,

URL = <http://text.nlm.nih.gov/nih/nih.html>

This site allows doctors to receive free CME credit for reading and taking a quiz (on-line) on the content of our Consensus Development Conference statements. There are two quizzes now and more on the way.

*Giving credit where credit is due, we received the majority of the suggested clinical medicine sites from Roger Fajman of DCRT.