Using the Internet Effectively
Author: Richard Rathe, MD / rrathe@dean.med.ufl.edu
Version: Interactive Workshop Handout
Copyright: 1998 by the University of Florida
Location: http://www.medinfo.ufl.edu/cme/inet/handout.html
Created: January 1, 1998
Modified: September 18, 1998
An internet (little i) is a network of networks.
The Internet (big i) is the largest (global) public inter-network.
A Client/Server Architecture
The Internet is based on a set of open standards:
The Internet is based on a set of open standards:
- TCP/IP
- SMTP/POP3
- MIME
- Data Format Specification
- FTP
- HTTP
- Hypertext Transfer Protocol
- NNTP
- Network News Transfer Protocol
Sending email is similar to sending regular mail:
- You must know the recipient's address.
- You must have access to an email "drop box."
Sending email is different from sending regular mail:
- You should always give your message a title.
- Your message can be sent to many people at once.
rrathe@dean.med.ufl.edu
- Specify a subject for each message.
- Sign your messages.
- Think before you send a message to more than one person.
- Be careful with personal information.
- Be careful with patient specific information.
One Address for Many Recipients
Cross Between Email and a Bulletin Board
A Global Hypertext Document
Constantly Under Revision
No One In Charge!
http://www.med.ufl.edu/medinfo/index.html
- http://
- www.med.ufl.edu
- medinfo/
- index.html
Tags and Content
<TITLE>Sample HTML File</TITLE>
Hot Text and Links
<A HREF="next.html">This is a link.</A>
Composite Documents
This is an image. <IMG SRC="picture.gif">
- Portals to the Internet
- Integrate and Display Information
- Support Many Protocols
- The World Wide Web
- Internet Email
- File Transfer
- News Groups
- Other Multimedia
- Word of Mouth (Email)
- Bookmarks
- Search Engines
- Directories
- Follow Links
- Gather Information
- Store Information
- Keywords
- Content
- More Links
Special Internet services that:
- Use Robots to Create a Huge Index
- Allow You to Search Using This Database
- Provide Links Back to the Original Information
- Prioritize These Links
- Indexing Based on Words, Not Concepts
- No Controlled Vocabulary
- Criteria for Prioritization are Proprietary
- Time Lag Between Robot Visits
- Robots Aren't Very Smart
- The Robot Exclusion Standard
http://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/robots.html
- Indexing Based on Concepts
- Controlled Vocabulary (MeSH)
- Open Criteria for Indexing, Prioritization
- Time Lag after Publication
- Human Indexers Are Very Smart
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
A set of standardized medical queries was used to evaluate two robot-based and one directory-based search engines.
| Search Terms |
Rationale |
| Breast Cancer |
Common Disease |
| Breast Cancer and Patient Education |
...Focus Topic |
| Breast Cancer and Tamoxifen |
...Focus Topic |
| Breast Carcinoma |
...Synonym |
| Hypertension |
Common Disease |
| Hypertension and Captopril |
...Focus Topic |
| High Blood Pressure |
...Synonym |
| Ritalin |
Trade Drug Name |
| Methylphenidate |
Generic Drug Name |
http://www.med.ufl.edu/medinfo/docs/search.html
- The robot-based search engines were far superior to the popular "Yahoo" directory for identifying information directed at medical professionals.
- There was very little overlap between the top-ranked documents from Alta Vista and Lycos; they were essentially complementary.
- Yahoo searches yielded many more alternative medicine, lifestyle, and commercial (centers, goods, and services) sites than the others.
- Disease and drug names that have recently been in the popular press were less useful when searching for professional information. Technical medical terms were more likely to yield professional information.
- There was almost no overlap between trade and generic drug name searches. Generic drug names appear to have more specificity for professional information.
- Use at least two or three search services on a regular basis. Become familiar with their special capabilities.
- Be persistent, try multiple queries using synonyms and other variations.
- Don't try to read everything while you are searching. Use the "Save as..." and bookmark features of your browser to save your search results for later analysis.
Directories are the best alternative to search engines:
- Created and maintained by human experts
- Much higher signal to noise ratio
- May provide a ranking system for each resource
- Different types:
- "List" sites collate and organize other lists
- "Peer Reviewed" sites rank resources
- "Mission" sites are dedicated to a specific disorder
- "Commercial" sites whose primary purpose is to sell you something