Webupon

When I am typing along and need to look up something, I use Google 99% of the time because of its intelligent search; it suggests terms if you type in part of a phrase or use a * for a missing word.  The other search engines are just no comparison to the Google for medical procedures and terminology; although MSN gives nice results for pharmaceuticals. Use the simplest commands for Google; remember it is just a program and cannot intuit as well as a human.

If you can’t find any results, get out those Stedman’s books, sometimes it is quicker to find the answer there. If you can’t understand the dictation, try to figure it out by context. This gets easier after awhile when you get used to phrases in certain parts of reports, especially the physical examination, where they zoom through like auctioneers. When search results come up, remember to choose a reliable website with an ending like .gov, .org, .edu, or an official health website like CDC for terms. Surgical tool sites are likely to end in .com because they are selling tools for surgeons. Wikipedia is good if you know a fair amount about the subject and want to check a spelling or want more information. It also has a medical section, which can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine. There are lots of links there to specialties and terms.

Sometimes you might not be searching the right spelling or the term might be under another name. You can pick up other names for a term through clicking a few links at times, and then search for the new term instead.

When you get dozens of websites saved up, you can create your own Google search engine.  Put all of the sites you want in it, then you have narrowed your search to your “piece” of the Internet. It is Easy to make your own search engine with instructions on Google.  Here is one of my Google search engines.

 MTopedia

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014696760455525279064:0dkytcm9-y8&hl=en

You do need to sign up with Google and go to http://www.google.com/coop/cse/. Click on the Create a Custom Search Engine button, name your engine, describe it, and put the websites in the box you want to include. Then click the next button to complete it, and try it out! If you ever want to edit it, click on the My Account at the top of the page, click on My Search Engines on the right of the page, then click on the engine link you want to edit. On your custom search engine page, there will be a link to Edit This Search Engine. Click that and on the next page, you can edit and save any changes.

Another site is Rollyo, http://rollyo.com/index.html. There you can create searchrolls. You can click on Create Searchroll at the bottom of the page and fill in the boxes exactly the same way as you do on Google. You can also use the Dashboard where there is a list of starter search engines you can use or choose. There are also plenty of tools there to explore such as adding a search box to your site or using their bookmarklet.

There is the gold standard site for drugs, drugs.com. This has the best features of any drug site I have been on. You can phonetically search, wildcard search, and choose different views such as professional view for dosages and interactions. If you put a term not drug-related in the search box, it will sometimes bring up some good sites to look for information, like disease or condition-related information. You can search for drugs by condition, too. You can search Google and many times, it will bring up a result from drugs.com that you couldn’t find with the search box in drugs.com. If you see a site that interests you from a Google search, click on the related link at the bottom of the site description to get some other probable sites.

You might want your own way to organize and view web sites you have saved. I know when I see a long list, I don’t feel like reading to the bottom.  Put the sites in short paragraphs, chunks, a diagram, or in boxes laterally in a web document. I came up with the idea of a web wheel drawn in MS Word, which consists of using the drawing tools to draw a circle and dividing it into sections like a pie. Put a site with annotations in each slice.

This is just a short description of what I have learned about MT searching so far. It also works with other searches of course.  As I learn more and get new ideas about MT searching, I will write more tips. Thanks for reading!