How to Find Medical Information on the Internet. A Print and Online Tutorial for the Healthcare Professional and Consumer.

For practicing health sciences librarians who use the Internet on a daily basis, there will be little new in this publication. It is more likely to be of use as a training tool for developing bibliographic instruction classes rather than as a tool for finding health information. Aimed at both consumers and health professionals, the book is about “providing you with skills to be a savvy Internet searcher.” It is, as the title says, a print and online tutorial designed to replicate Kovacs' class, complete with lectures, overheads, and exercises. The dual format is meant to assure the information is always current. Every copy of the book has a unique number that enables the owner to log on to the Website and acquire a personal password. This gives the owner six-month access to the online tutorial, including the ability to contact Kovacs as the tutor for assistance with the exercises. The password must be obtained before July 1, 2001. Three units—“Getting Started,” “The Internet as a Powerful Means of Communication,” and “Beyond Basics”—form the core of the book. These sections cover topics such as an introduction to the Internet; evaluating health information on the Internet; using email, electronic discussion lists, and news groups; and using the Internet to find clinical and professional information. Each unit is followed by a series of exercises designed to reinforce the information presented in the units. These exercises can also be completed online and submitted to a tutor for grading or comments. The other major component of the book is the forty-page listing of health-related Websites, “Pulsepoints.” A glossary and very short reading list containing three citations are also included. In its favor, the book is structured logically and provides good, solid information in an easily understood format. The exercises are interesting and support the learning experience. However, it suffers from being neither fish nor fowl. Because it is aimed at both consumers and professionals, the book falls short of successfully addressing the needs of either group. For example, there is no discussion of PubMed in the “Beyond Basics” unit. Internet Grateful Med is used to demonstrate searching MEDLINE, and Medical Matrix is suggested for its comparison chart of various sources of MEDLINE. It seems superfluous even to discuss other sources of MEDLINE when PubMed is available free from the National Library of Medicine. Similarly, there is no discussion or description of using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). For medical professionals, clinicians, and researchers, medical databases are still the primary sources of information. A discussion of what is not available on the Internet or even a discussion of free versus fee-based medical information, such as access to electronic journals, would have greatly enhanced this text. The author lists the types of information available on the Internet, however users often do not know what else is available for a fee or what may be a better non-Internet source. Similarly, for consumers, it is disappointing that MEDLINEplus only warrants a brief mention in the “Pulsepoints” section under Health Meta Sites but not under Consumer Information and is not used in any of the exercises. The annotation for MEDLINEplus is poor. For example, there is no mention of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) or the Adam encyclopedia available through this site. Ranking the sites rather than just providing an alphabetical listing would probably be more helpful to novices. Consumers could benefit from a specific section devoted to explaining the research process and the continuum of medical information available from the very basic to the high-end technical literature. One does not want to quibble with the selection of Websites, as pleasing everyone is impossible, but the lack of emphasis on sites such as MEDLINEplus and PubMed is irksome. Finding only two sites under “Hospital and Other Healthcare Administration” and four under “Grants” is disappointing, but again pleasing everyone is impossible. The inclusion of a basic science resources section for medical researchers in the “Pulsepoints” section may have been a useful addition. The online tutorial basically follows the book and presents the same information. This reviewer checked the site four times over a six-week period and made the following observations. There are several navigational errors in the online version. Some of them are minor, such as the lack of a direct link to the Unit 1 exercises at the end of the text. Instead, users have go back to the unit table of contents to get to the exercises. Other navigational errors are more serious. Unit 2, “The Internet as a Powerful Means of Communication,” is divided into four sections. Clicking on the first section, “The Communications Landscape,” which is supposed to discuss email and electronic discussion groups, just brings up the headings within the section rather than any text. Clicking on the Next button at the end of the page brings the user out of Unit 2 and back to a Unit 1 section on Internet Connections and Getting Started. This link is completely wrong. Also, in Unit 2, the second section, Think Before You Speak, which is supposed to be about etiquette on the Internet and other issues, just brings up a title and no text. In Unit 2, the Table of Contents navigational button does not work. Similar to Unit 1, an option link at the bottom of each exercise to go to the next exercise would be helpful rather than having to go back to the contents page. Those who undertake the online exercises have the option of submitting them to a tutor for comment. This feature is useful when the tutor is someone like Kovacs. The online Pulsepoints is organized as in the print version, with the addition of sections for sites recently added, deleted, or changed. Information in these sections was kept up to date during the period this reviewer visited the site. A useful addition available through the online version is searchable access to the Directory of Scholarly and Professional E-Conferences via the section on health and medical electronic discussion lists and news groups. Another Kovacs publication, its scope is much broader than just health and medicine. One final comment on the online version: it would have been helpful to have the Further Reading citations hyperlinked. All have uniform resource locators (URLs), but none are hyperlinked. This seems like a missed opportunity to lead the user directly to a source. As stated in the beginning of the review, this publication will be of most interest to librarians responsible for developing and delivering bibliographic instruction programs. With that in mind, there is much useful material and many ideas for training exercises contained in the text to recommend a purchase for this purpose alone. The online version is primarily intended for those working through the text for self-instruction and is less valuable to librarians with or without the flaws noted above.