The Age Of The Internet Medical Information Retrieval

In today's society, network information retrieval has become widespread throughout the world. Out of all network information retrieval systems, the Internet has become the largest and more popular. It allows colleges, libraries, business centers, research institutions and a host of other organizational LANs to become a single, gigantic, worldwide information network. Because the Internet provides for a user-friendly interface, more and more medical workers have come to favor the Internet as their primary source for information retrieval. This type of information retrieval is easy to learn, easy to manipulate, provides for low cost and is extremely powerful. Because of the many advantages of Internet information retrieval, the more traditional retrieval methods (CD-ROM, on-line database) have grown less popular. However, there are many medical databases to access and enormous amounts of medical information to obtain from these systems. Many users of these retrieval systems do not understand where to begin their search, the cope of the search content, the associated costs, and or the retrieval path. Because of this lack of understanding/knowledge, many medical workers are not able to perform the efficient retrieval of information. Subsequently, CD-ROM and international on-line databases are still being utilized.Today, medical information retrieval is developing into an entirely new type of multi-retrieval system. This thesis includes research on CD and international on-line database retrievals, search engines (primarily medical search engines), and certain parts of Chinese search engines with maps, blankets and examples being included. In this thesis I compare each medical information retrieval system in the scope of contents, providing retrieval paths, the costs associated with searching (using the systems), and various other aspects relevant to information retrieval. Also included are discussions on the existing problems and solutions for medical information retrieval in the era of the internet. This information is provided in hopes that it can help numerous medical workers to improve the efficiency of information retrieval and assist in the research and development in the Chinese search engines.This thesis is divided into six parts as follows:Preface:The preface introduces why and how i developed the research for this thesis while providing an introduction to the subject of information retrieval.Chapter One:Chapter one explains the state of medical information retrieval in today's world. Nowadays, medical information retrieval is not only CD-ROM based, but also includes international on-line databases and Internet retrievals. Also, I provide the introduction of the various specialties of every kind of retrieval system. Comparing CD-ROM, international on-line databases, and Internet retrieval systems while providing retrieval paths, their ability to support multi-database retrieval, and various other relevant aspects of information retrieval systems.Chapter Two:Chapter two discusses research on medical information retrieval performed over the Internet. Introducing 9 English medical search engines and some Chinese and English medical databases (at this time there are no Chinese medical search engines); comparing and analyzing medical search engines in the scope of information, costs, if keyword or classification retrieval is provided and/or whether web site grading is provided.Chapter Three:Chapter 3 discusses another way to search the Internet - Chinese common search engines. At this time there are no Chinese medical search engines and there is a cost (charge) associated with the use of Chinese medical databases. Therefore, it is still a good resource for some users to use the Chinese common search engine and locate medical information. This chapter will introduce 9 Chinese common search engines. Special attention is provided to the scope of the medical information and the comparison of these web pages based on the number of pages (hits) obtain in each initial search.Chapter F...