FAQ
Finding Medical Information in MEDLINE
Question: What is MEDLINE, and how do I use it to find information?
Answer:
MEDLINE:
- - is a huge database of over 12 million article references published in biomedical journals and magazines
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- is used to find references to journal articles on specific medical topics by using:
- - keywords
- - Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), which are standard terms that are assigned by the staff of the NLM
- - contains citations and many author abstracts in English from more than 4300 biomedical journals published in the United States and in 70 foreign countries
- - covers 1966 - the present, plus some citations from 1963 - 1965; information on identifying older journal articles can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/indexmedicus.html
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- can be searched for FREE using NLM's PubMed system at http://pubmed.gov/
- - more details on MEDLINE can be found in NLM's Fact Sheet on MEDLINE
- - NLM encourages MEDLINE users to discuss search results with their health care provider
If you do not have Internet access:
- - check to see if your local library provides Internet access
- - some libraries will do searches for you (probably for a fee)
- - if your local library cannot help you, contact the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Regional Medical Libraries at 800-338-7657 for assistance
- Related Questions:
- What is PubMed?
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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/usemedline.html