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SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study

BACKGROUND: With the rapid growth of medical information and the pervasiveness of the Internet, online search and retrieval systems have become indispensable tools in medicine. The progress of Web technologies can provide expert searching capabilities to non-expert information seekers. The objective...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Muin, Michael, Fontelo, Paul, Liu, Fang, Ackerman, Michael
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1318459/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16321145
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-5-37
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author Muin, Michael
Fontelo, Paul
Liu, Fang
Ackerman, Michael
author_facet Muin, Michael
Fontelo, Paul
Liu, Fang
Ackerman, Michael
author_sort Muin, Michael
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: With the rapid growth of medical information and the pervasiveness of the Internet, online search and retrieval systems have become indispensable tools in medicine. The progress of Web technologies can provide expert searching capabilities to non-expert information seekers. The objective of the project is to create an alternative search interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches using JavaScript slider bars. SLIM, or Slider Interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches, was developed with PHP and JavaScript. Interactive slider bars in the search form controlled search parameters such as limits, filters and MeSH terminologies. Connections to PubMed were done using the Entrez Programming Utilities (E-Utilities). Custom scripts were created to mimic the automatic term mapping process of Entrez. Page generation times for both local and remote connections were recorded. RESULTS: Alpha testing by developers showed SLIM to be functionally stable. Page generation times to simulate loading times were recorded the first week of alpha and beta testing. Average page generation times for the index page, previews and searches were 2.94 milliseconds, 0.63 seconds and 3.84 seconds, respectively. Eighteen physicians from the US, Australia and the Philippines participated in the beta testing and provided feedback through an online survey. Most users found the search interface user-friendly and easy to use. Information on MeSH terms and the ability to instantly hide and display abstracts were identified as distinctive features. CONCLUSION: SLIM can be an interactive time-saving tool for online medical literature research that improves user control and capability to instantly refine and refocus search strategies. With continued development and by integrating search limits, methodology filters, MeSH terms and levels of evidence, SLIM may be useful in the practice of evidence-based medicine.
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spelling pubmed-13184592005-12-22 SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study Muin, Michael Fontelo, Paul Liu, Fang Ackerman, Michael BMC Med Inform Decis Mak Software BACKGROUND: With the rapid growth of medical information and the pervasiveness of the Internet, online search and retrieval systems have become indispensable tools in medicine. The progress of Web technologies can provide expert searching capabilities to non-expert information seekers. The objective of the project is to create an alternative search interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches using JavaScript slider bars. SLIM, or Slider Interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches, was developed with PHP and JavaScript. Interactive slider bars in the search form controlled search parameters such as limits, filters and MeSH terminologies. Connections to PubMed were done using the Entrez Programming Utilities (E-Utilities). Custom scripts were created to mimic the automatic term mapping process of Entrez. Page generation times for both local and remote connections were recorded. RESULTS: Alpha testing by developers showed SLIM to be functionally stable. Page generation times to simulate loading times were recorded the first week of alpha and beta testing. Average page generation times for the index page, previews and searches were 2.94 milliseconds, 0.63 seconds and 3.84 seconds, respectively. Eighteen physicians from the US, Australia and the Philippines participated in the beta testing and provided feedback through an online survey. Most users found the search interface user-friendly and easy to use. Information on MeSH terms and the ability to instantly hide and display abstracts were identified as distinctive features. CONCLUSION: SLIM can be an interactive time-saving tool for online medical literature research that improves user control and capability to instantly refine and refocus search strategies. With continued development and by integrating search limits, methodology filters, MeSH terms and levels of evidence, SLIM may be useful in the practice of evidence-based medicine. BioMed Central 2005-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC1318459/ /pubmed/16321145 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-5-37 Text en Copyright © 2005 Muin et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Software
Muin, Michael
Fontelo, Paul
Liu, Fang
Ackerman, Michael
SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study
title SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study
title_full SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study
title_fullStr SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study
title_full_unstemmed SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study
title_short SLIM: an alternative Web interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches – a preliminary study
title_sort slim: an alternative web interface for medline/pubmed searches – a preliminary study
topic Software
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1318459/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16321145
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-5-37
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