You would like to find some basic information on osteogenesis imperfecta before you talk to an orthopedic specialist regarding one of your patients.

1. Connect to the AltaVista Search Engine. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.altavista.digital.com

2. Conduct a Basic Search in AltaVista by clicking once in the search form and typing the phrase (including the quotation marks):

3. Look at some of the hits you retrieved; connect to any links that seem interesting.

4. Conduct an Advanced Search in AltaVista by clicking on the Advanced Search Link. Look for your topic in government web sites only. To do this click once in the search form box (it will be a larger box than the one in the Basic Search). Type:

5. Look at some of the hits. Record the number here __________ .

6. Try another Advanced Search in AltaVista. This time we will explore the Ranking feature. Type:

Try two different ways to rank your results. First type "osteogenesis imperfecta" in the ranking box and click on the search. Scroll down and view some of the retrieval.

Now try ranking by the hearing concept. Replace "osteogenesis imperfecta" with the term "hearing" in the ranking box. Did your results get sorted differently?

1. Connect to the HotBot Search Engine. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

2. Search for information on osteogenesis imperfecta again. Note that you can select the government domain (.gov) directly from the default search page. Click on the Continent box and use the pulldown menu to select North American government sites (North America (.gov)). Click the Send button.

Record the number of hits here _________. Compare with the number you found in AltaVista.

You are looking for the e-mail address of a cardiologist you met at a conference in Baltimore. You remember his name, Alfred Schultz, but you can’t find the napkin on which you wrote his e-mail

1. Connect to HotBot.

2. Select the Find E-mail Addresses Link and type in the information you have:

3. Review your results. Did you find him?

You would like to find out about reimbursement issues and telemedicine.

1. Connect to HotBot (use your Back button to get to the top page of the Hotbot site if you aren’t already there). Select the Clear Form option at the bottom of the page, or highlight and replace any text that might appear in the search form.

2. Conduct a search on your topic. Be sure that you have the option Look for All the Words displayed and type the words "telemedicine" and "reimbursement" (quotation marks are not necessary).

3. Now try a Super Search. Click on the Super Search link towards the bottom of the page. Look for hits on redux and heart valves, but not litigation or lawsuits. Search for all words, Redux and valves; select the Must Not Contain option and add litigation in one box, and lawsuits in another.

 

You would like to locate pathology photos of a granulamatous disease called sarcoidosis.

1. Connect to a specialized medical search engine, MedFinder. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

2. Click on the MedFinder Web Search link.

3. Click in the search form and type the topic of sarcoidosis.

4. Click in the box for Photos/Animations.

5. Click on the Find It! button and view your results.