National Library of Medicine: database gateway

Abstract

PHYSICIANS MAY USE computers to facilitate record keeping or to play computer games. Many, however, use them for access to information from remotely situated databases. The National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) probably is the best known and most widely used medical information system. It provides access to 18 databases, not restricted to medical science. For instance, the growing interaction between medicine and society is reflected in BIOETHICS, produced by the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, which provides references on medical ethics and public policy, and HEALTH, which deals with economic, legal, and administrative aspects of medicine. MEDLARS also has AVLINE, providing citations to audiovisual materials, and HISTLINE, for medical history information. And some of the computer databases are the equivalent of reference books (a dictionary of chemicals, a thesaurus of biomedical terms, and a directory of organizations providing health information