| Diseases Database | Index | Disclaimer | Sponsorship | Contact | Previous page | ||
Search Tips |
| Search | |
|
Tip Index
- Search methods
- Logical ('Boolean') operators and wildcards and, or, not, * etc
- Keyword searches 'like Medline'
- Case sensitivity 'mYOcardial inFARCT'
- Proprietary (branded) drug names 'sildenafil' vs 'Viagra'
- Eponymous syndromes 'Smith-Doe's disease'
- Diacritics umlauts, accented characters e.g. ö, è, ç
- Greek letters
- Numbers and numerals '5-Fluorouracil', 'Glycogenosis Type V'
- Spelling / typing checker aka 'did you mean' facility
What is in the Database?
Resume searches
Search methods
To find items please search using words you would look up in the index of a standard medical textbook. The Diseases Database subject search does not use 'natural language' like Ask Jeeves. The default search combines two methods to maximise the chance of finding an item. You usually need to type at most two complete words to return a manageable list containing what you want.- Extended Search: requires whole words but is insensitive to the order in which words appear. Additionally it interprets common plurals, hyphenation, apostrophes and some common spelling variants (e.g. anemia / anaemia). It also has some simple AI features.
- Substring search: e.g. 'cardia' returns 'cardiac arrest' and 'myocardial infarction' etc.
It can return large lists if you only enter very few letters (characters). Common words or fragments e.g. 'disease' or 'itis' can also yield overnumerous hits.
Keyword searches 'like Medline'
The Extended search mode does have some of these features i.e. it requires full words but is insensitive to their order. Logical operators ('and', 'or', 'not' etc) are not supported.
Logical ('Boolean') operators and wildcards
Logical operators ('and', 'or', 'not' etc) are not supported. Neither are wildcards.
Case sensitivity
All search modes are case insensitive.
Proprietary drug names
Only generic (non-proprietary or non-brand) drug names are held on the database. Please see also FAQ
Eponymous syndromes
The literature is inconsistent regarding eponyms. Perfect accuracy could not be guaranteed unless we traced birth records. An eponym may end in 's', as opposed to simply
denoting possession; e.g. Chagas, Jeghers, Coombs, Perthes.
Hyphens in multiple name eponymous syndromes may be absent correctly e.g. the Austin
Flint murmur was described by Austin Flint, not Austin and Flint.
Spelling / typing checker: the 'did you mean' facility
This facility is not a universal spell check. It runs against a dictionary derived solely from the Diseases Database terms (approx 9500 words). It is invoked when a search term is unmatched and always 'succeeds' in finding alternatives. The suggestions can be bizarre and we are trying to improve specificity without ruining the rather good sensitivity. The facility was added because logs showed the second commonest reason for not finding something in the Diseases Database was that the search term was mistyped or misspelled by the user. (This represented roughly one in five of all free text searches).
Diacritics (umlauts, accented characters etc)
Few English speaking users have easy access to these characters from their keyboards. It is suggested you use the unadorned letter (e.g. Behçet is stored as Behcet, Ménière as Meniere, Fröhlich as Frohlich etc). We would love to make the site UTF-8 based but it is 200th on our list of priorities.
Greek letters
The phonetic forms are used e.g. ß appears as beta.
Numbers and numerals
Numbers may appear in item names e.g. 5-Aminosalicylic acid, 3-beta hydroxylase deficiency, Glycogenosis Type V etc. The extended search mode has some ability to double guess search intentions but the best strategy is to use the non-numeric part as your search term.
|
We subscribe to the HONcode principles of the Health On the Net Foundation. |
Valid XHTML 1.0
Served 2008-05-17 14:55:13 CPU <1s. |
©MOOSe Technology.
Last update 2008-05-10 |