This article appears in On Call , June 2000. It truly is amazing how much medical information you can get off the Internet with just a point and a click. Everything from journal abstracts to complete books can be yours in a matter of seconds. The problem is knowing how to sort through all the information that's available to get at that one or two pieces of information you or your patient needs.
Medical information abounds, especially on Web sites available on the Internet.
The volume that's there and the ease with which it can be found pose a challenge, though. Suzy Conway and Anna Getselman are reference librarians at the Countway Library at Harvard Medical School. They are experts at using the Internet to find medical information that health professionals want and need. Recently, a researcher came to Conway needing a list of the top ten fatal illnesses in the United States. But Conway went to the Internet search engine called MetaCrawler, and within minutes she found the exact information the man had asked for.