The Internet has never been more valuable to the health professional. Now available on the Internet are two resources that provide free access to the biomedical literature. Medline and Chiroaccess add to the growing number of sites that provide free health-related literature. Other sites have offered free (although limited) access to Medline, but now a large volume of the chiropractic literature is provided free on the Web.
- Medline (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed)
The National Library of Medicine announced in the May/June issue of Gratefully Yours that Medline,the world's largest medical database, is now available free over the Internet. Medline is searched with traditional search software using headings/keywords and logical operations (and, or, not).
- Chiroaccess (www.chiroaccess.com)
This new web site, activated in July, now provides free access to chiropractic literature that meets the user's predefined search criteria.
Chiroaccess has created information retrieval software using simple lists of the most commonly requested information by chiropractors. The doctor simply checks the subjects of interest. Currently, the list permits selection from a wide variety of clinical conditions: from headache or carpal tunnel syndrome, to professional issues like efficacy of chiropractic or managed care.
Chiroaccess selects the articles wanted by each doctor and notifies which are available when the user logs back to the site. Chiroaccess also uses this "push" technology to e-mail the doctor, if they desire, when new information is available. This ability to select what you want and have it "pushed" to you eliminates the need to conduct repetitive searches. NLM's web search engine called PubMed currently permits searching of all years of Medline as well as PREMedline. It also provides a limited number of links directly to the publishers so that the full text of an article can be obtained. NLM will add to these links in the future.
Chiroaccess does not currently permit retrospective searching through old literature, but screens for important contemporary research that meet the doctors' expressed needs.
The Internet's value to the health professions continues to grow as fast as the Internet itself. There are already plans by NLM to offer additional free information later this year. Chiropractors who are not taking advantage of this valuable health information are missing an opportunity to succeed in a world where access to the Internet is no longer a luxury, but a professional necessity.
Some of the Free Health Information on the Net
Chiropractic:
www.chiroaccess.com
Medical:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
www.healthgate.com
www.medscape.com
Ronald L. Rupert, MS, DC
Extension Faculty and Research
Cleveland Chiropractic College