icudoc-ga,
Thanks for getting back to me on this...your clarification was a big help.
I had to look up intensivist with a Google search [ define:
intensivist ]. Sounds like a very harrowing, rewarding branch of
medicine. A while ago there was a question at Google Answers about a
young burn victim that stirred quite a bit of concern among the
researchers here...it may be of interest to you:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=292293
As for your question, I've described below several options for keeping
up-to-date on areas of interest to you through automated search
services and related mechanisms. Several of the options are available
at no cost, and -- to my mind -- are every bit as good as the
fee-based services.
Using the services can sometimes take a bit of getting used,
especially in constructing a well-focused set of search terms that
zeros in on the materials of most relevance to you, without dumping a
lot of extraneous information in you inbox.
If you need any assistance down the line, don't hesitate to ask...I'll
be more than happy (even weeks or months after an answer is posted) to
help you out.
Before rating this answer, let me know if anything here isn't clear.
Just post a Request for Clarification, and I'll get back to you with
additional information.
All the best,
pafalafa-ga
==========
One of the best sources of up-to-date medical information are press
reports and press releases of new medical developments. These are
often issued well before the breakthrough is formally reported in the
medical literature. Another source is the World Wide Web itself,
which is teeming with information on new developments -- if one can
simply locate what they're looking for.
Fortunately, there are "push" tools to search news and the web, and
bring the latest information to your inbox.
First stop, then, is Google News at:
http://news.google.com/
They offer a free "News Alerts" service that will continually search
recent news items for you, according to the search terms you choose,
and then send you an email notification when a new item appears.
To start off, enter the search terms that are of interest to you. For
instance, I conducted a search on:
[ aspirin "heart attacks" ]
which returned 49 recent news articles.
Don't be dismayed if your first search returns an overwhelming number
of search results. This often happens on the first "sweep", but
subsequent searches will only find updates -- that is, the new stories
that haven't already been included in earlier searches.
Step 2 is to click on the text on the left hand side, "News Alerts".
Select "How often" you want to see results, and enter an email address.
That's it! Whenever a new story appears containing your search terms,
Google News will automatically send you an email with a link to the
story.
You are not restricted to a single search. Set up as many as you
like, and feel free to vary the search terms. As I said earlier, I'd
be happy to help you in constructing well-targeted searches.
This is a great service. It should serve you well.
==========
Next stop is Google Alert at:
http://www.googlealert.com/
This is very similar in concept to Google News, except that it
searches the entire web rather than just news sources.
Sign-up is free and just as easy as at Google News, although you have
to pick a user
name and password for this site.
You'll note that Google Alert invites you to submit up to five
searches at once, so if you want to try other search terms, be
my/their guest.
The first time you run this search, Google Alert will likely find you a ton
of results and will email you information on the top 50 results.
But after that, the service will simply provide you a once-a-day
update if any new materials appear on the web pertaining to your
search terms.
Not long ago, Google search results began including the medical
abstracts from the PubMed system at the National Library of Medicine
in the US:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
I imagine you are familiar with this already, but if not, please take
some time to explore the PubMed site, as it is the single most
valuable online resource I now of for medical information.
You can construct a Google Alerts search that includes the term
"pubmed" in it. For instance:
[ aspirin "heart attacks" pubmed ]
This search will produce results that are highly concentrated on
professional medical journal articles (rather than, e.g., health
discussion forums).
==========
By the way, I looked over the PubMed itself at length to see if they
offer a direct alert service, along the same lines as I've been
describing. There does not appear to be one, but the Google Alert
service should do almost as well.
I contacted the National Library of Medicine to see if they might have
(or one day offer) such a service. I'll let you know if they offer up
any useful information.
=========
Another service that may be useful to you operates with a different
delivery system.
MD-Linx, at:
http://www.mdlinx.com/
delivers once-a-day well-crafted newsletters on specific areas of
medical speciality. A list of their "Professional Sites" appears on
their home page -- press on the "scroll down" button to see it in its
entiretyl
For instance, selecting "Emergency MDLinx" from the list will take you here:
http://www.mdlinx.com/EmergencyMDLinx/
where you can view the latest articles pertaining to emergency
medicine. On the left hand side of the page is an option to view
specific sub-specialties, such as the "Airway/Respiratory" category.
The "push" part of all this, is that MDLinx will deliver a daily
newsletter to you inbox with the news in your particular area of
interest. If you rest your mouse on the text at the top of the page,
"Today?s News", a menu will drop down with an option for
"Newsletters". Clicking on this will open up instructions about
signing up to have one or more newsletters delivered by email.
==========
The final two options for pushing information into your inbox are --
by necessity -- a bit vague at the moment, since I don't know exactly
what type of information you're looking for. However, if you want
more information on either of the options below, just let me know.
The first option to mention is the Proquest Medical database, which is
widely used by colleges, and is generally available through schools or
through libraries. This is full-text and (often) full-image database
of medical literature. A description of it can be seen here:
http://www.il.proquest.com/products/pd-product-medical.shtml
It's been my experience that Proquest is configured differently at
different libraries. I suppose the depends on what specific services
a library subscribes to, and how the interface is integrated with the
library system.
If you have access to Proquest Medical through your practice, please
check to see if it includes a "push" option. I would be happy to do
some checking for you, if I knew the details of of where (of if) you
have access to this particular searching tool.
==========
Similarly, individual medical journals may offer a "push" option to
subscribers. Again, I would be glad to check specific journals for to
see if this option exists...just provide me a list of the relevant
journals.
==========
With the (relatively recent) integration of PubMed into the Google
search results, I truly believe that the Google News and Google Alerts
services that I described above will provide you well-targeted and
very current "push" access to the latest information in your field.
However, if you find you want additional information -- or want to
explore additional options -- just let me know, and I'll be happy to
help you.
All the best,
pafalafa-ga
search strategy: Used existing knowledge and bookmarked sites. |