- HealthLinks MD Consult Help page
- Registration form problem - can't supply all information
- Discontinuation of MD Curbside--Consult email messages
- Timeout period for log off
- Printing a complete journal article, including illustrations
- Tables/illustrations/graphics in reference books that don't appear
- Search engine used by MD Consult
- Linking to journal issues or articles
- Indexing in MD Consult
- Search Query execution order
- Advanced seach techniques
- PubMed Linkout to MD Consult
- I can't register for MD
Consult because I am unable to supply all of the information needed
(e.g. I can't choose a medical specialty). What's
wrong?
- According to MD Consult customer service, this is a problem that occurs sometimes with Netscape browser users. Try moving the vertical scroll bar on the right side of the browser window up and down rapidly multiple times. Drop down boxes should appear on the web page that will allow you to choose the needed information. If this doesn't work you'll need to call customer service at MD Consult (1-800-401-9962 Monday-Friday 8am-8pm, central time) or send an email message to customer.service@mdconsult.com.
- How do I stop receiving MD
Curbside--Consult email messages?
- Removing names from the MD Curbside--Consult newsletter is no problem at all. Those who wish to be removed from the quarterly newsletter can contact customer service at customer.service@mdconsult.com and ask to be removed from the mailing list.
- What is the timeout period if
someone forgets to log off?
- The time out period is 10-15 minutes. Upon returning to MD Consult after this time out period, a user can move the mouse, bring up the MD Consult log-in window, and re-enter user name and password. If a space is available the user will be taken back to the same page as before the time out.
- How do I print a complete journal
article, including illustrations?
- When you have the text of the journal article in the frame use the 'print frame' option in browser file menu. As always you will print what appears on the web page. If there are graphics that appear in the text as a thumbnail you will need to click on the thumbnail and print the full-size graphic separately from the article text.
- Why aren't all
tables/illustrations/graphics in reference books (eg Ferri: Practical
Guide to the Care of the Medical Patient, pg. 229 on Still's Disease)
and full-text journal articles viewable?
- Some licenses were obtained without electronic rights. With each new license MD Consult is obtaining electronic rights. This problem should disappear over time.
- How do I directly access a journal
title to see issues or even articles within the issues (like a table of
contents)?
- MD Consult can't hyperlink to journal articles because of publishers' restrictions. To see the contents of a specific use the search page for the journals and search for the full journal name.
- What is the search engine that MD
Consult uses?
- MD Consult uses the Verity search engine.
- I searched for sinusitis and
treatment. One of the entries in the results list is for Rakel:
Conn's Current Therapy. When you follow the link you see the index
entry:
Lis -- Ly
Loracarbef, for sinusitis, 235
I wasn't interested in therapy with that particular drug so I didn't follow the link, but when you do you can scroll down the page and see the terms 'therapy' and 'treatment' in red. Since reference books aren't searched full-text can I assume that the terms 'therapy' and 'treatment' are part of the additional indexing done by MD Consult? -
Using the UMLS, a team of Medical Librarians maps each term from the
book index to MeSH terms. In addition, MD Consult has created a
vocabulary of synonyms for commonly used terms that are not part of the
UMLS. During a search query, the search logic looks for words in the
book indexes, the MeSH equivalents, the UMLS, and the MD Consult
synonym table. That is why the search for the word "treatment" resulted
in the additional term "therapy" to be included.
Regarding the explanation as to why terms are highlighted in the text if full-text when the full-text isn't searched: The protocol for searching Ref Books stays the same. After the search is completed, the highlighting feature occurs afterwards. They are two separate, yet unrelated functions. The highlighting feature highlights the relevant terms int he full-text to make them easier to find. (Added Aug. 1999)
- What is the order of execution of
a search query? I couldn't find a specific spot in help that
explains the order in which search terms are processed. I assume terms
are searched in order from top to bottom. For example, the two searches
below don't give the same results.
| Search A: | Search B: | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
- The MD Consult search engine, when (similar to the second example below) it encounters an OR looks for all preceding terms or that term "by itself." The best to structure a search similar to how your person desired would be sinusitis and (treatment or therapy). This could be done all on one line or it could be structured sinusitis AND (treatment or therapy) on two lines.
Typically, the indexing that MD Consult should eliminate the need for synonyms, but adding them won't hurt. The search terms are processed from top to bottom and left to right (as you might assume). It is the parentheses that determine which terms are associated with each other. Our help section does an ok job in explaining this, but this needs improvement. By the way, you do not need to put parens around the terms "treatment or therapy"...simply putting them together on the same line will combine the terms.(Added Aug. 1999)
- In the journal search section
are you doing a keyword/textword search that includes the full-text of
the journal articles that MD Consult has? Is there any way to limit a
search to the title/subject headings?
- The search engine searches title, major subject heading, then minor subject heading. The default sort for results is full text/relevancy. Results also can be sorted by relevancy (regardless of full-text availability) or by publication date.
Advanced searching techniques can be found in the Search Help section. Field search options are listed below.
| Search Fields | MD Consult Field Names | Description | When to Use | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract | ab mdcab abstract |
The article summary, supplied by the author or publisher. | Use for new terminology or to limit the search to the Medline or author abstract. | carpal tunnel [ab] |
| Article Title | ti titl mdcti title |
Exact title of the article. | Use for new terminology or to locate specific articles. Searches only the title of the articles. | carpal tunnel [ti] |
| Author(s) | No field qualifier is required. | Last names and initials of up to 10 article authors. | Use the query boxes reserved for author searches. | Last name in first box. First inital in next box. Middle initial. |
| Author Affiliation | mdcad authoraffiliation |
Name of the institution associated with the primary author. | To limit the search to authors from a particular institution. Will not find articles that have not yet been indexed by the NLM. | Oregon Health Sciences University [mdcad] |
| Chemical Compound Name | mdcrn chemcompound |
CAS Registry/EC Number and the substance name, as indexed by the NLM. | To search for chemical names, CAS Registry or Enzyme Commission Numbers. | Peptide Fragments [mdcrn] |
| Language | language mdcla |
The language in which an article was published. | Use to limit to articles in a particular language. Will not find articles that have not yet been indexed by the NLM. | English [mdcla] |
| Major MeSH | majr meshmajor mdcmajor_desc |
Descriptors which identify the major focus of the article. | For articles that have been indexed by the NLM, to focus your search results on the most relevant articles. | Endolymphatic Duct [majr] |
| MeSH | sh mesh |
Descriptors assigned by the NLM, whether as major or additional terms. | For articles that have been indexed by the NLM, to limit your search results. | drug therapy [sh] |
| NLM Citation ID | nlmid mdcui |
Eight-digit unique number assigned by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). | Use only if you know the exact NLM citation number you want to retrieve. | 97296703 [mdcui] |
| Publication Date | pd yr date pubdate pub_date |
The date the article was originally published, in DD MON YYYY format. | Use to get articles published in a certain month or year. | 01 JUL 1998 [pd] |
| Publication Title | jn ta jour pubtitle mdcpub_title |
The name of the journal in which the article was originally published. | Use full spellings of titles when it is important to limit your search to one or more publications. | New England Journal of Medicine [jn] |
| Publication Title, Abbreviated | mdccite | The abbreviated name of the journal in which the article was originally published. | Use titles when it is important to limit your search to one or more publications. | N Engl J Med [mdccite] |
| Publication Type | pt pubtype ptyp mdcpt |
Describes the type of article such as Letter, Editorial, or Comment. Will not find articles that have not yet been indexed by the NLM. | Use to include or exclude particular types of articles. | Journal Article [pt] |
| Source Database | mdcsource | MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, CancerLit, HeathSTAR | Medline=MI HealthSTAR=HS Cancerlit=CL AIDSLINE=AL | MI [mdcsource] |
- I'm in PubMed, click on
'Linkout' and see an MD Consult icon. When I click on the icon I'm
asked for a userid/password but I don't have an
account.
- To use generic MD Consult access (where you don't need an individual userid and password) for a linkout in PubMed you must already have a generic MD Consult session open before starting PubMed. Please remember to exit/logoff when you're finished using MD Consult because we have a limited number of simultaneous user logins available.
http://healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/mdconsult_faq.html
Last Updated: Monday, 09-Apr-2007 12:15:23 PDT
http://healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/mdconsult_faq.html