Integrating the Internet into Your Clinical Practice
http://www.fpen.org/allina
May 8, 1998

Browsing Basics

• Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the menu bar.  Use your mouse to point to the word File on the menu bar and click on it.  Now use the up and down arrow keys in the keypad to select an item from the drop-down menu.  Notice that there is a description of each of the menu items in the status bar at the bottom of the window.   Use the right and left arrow keys on the keyboard to examine different menus.  Some of the menu items have ">" at the right.   These are hierarchical menu items.  Use the arrow keys to highlight one of these items and then use the right-arrow key see how a submenu appears.  When you are done looking at the menus, click anywhere in the blank window to close the menus.
• Now notice the icons in the button bar below the menu bar.  These provide easy access to some basic functions such as printing, jumping to a different site, going back to retrace your steps, etc.
• Now try clicking on the back and forward keys to see what they do.
• Finally click on the Bookmarks menu and note the list of Web Sites.  Select Add Bookmark and note that the current page appears at the bottom of the bookmark list.

Beginning Site Exploration

• In your Netscape browser, hold down the CTRL key and type L. In the Open Location box type the Allina library home page address:

www.allina.com/library/index.htm

Click on Internet Resources. Scroll down to view the Internet Site Subject Guides. Click on a category of your choice. Click open a link to another site. Click on your Back button and explore other links or choose another subject.

• Specialty society pages. Link to an organization of your choice by clicking on one of the addresses below, or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type in the address.

American Academy of Neurology
        www.aan.com
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
        www.aans.org
American Academy of Otolaryngology
        www.entnet.org
American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
        www.aapmr.org
American College of Cardiology
        www.acc.org
American College of Physicians
        www.acponline.org
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
        www.acog.org
American Academy of Opthalmology
        www.eyenet.org
Radiological Society of North America
        www.rsna.org

Once you are at the site, explore the features of your choice. You may want to look for and/or answer the following questions:

Does the site require registration?
Are there private/members-only sections?
Is it easy to navigate? Is there a way to search the entire site?
Does it allow for communication? (i.e., is there a link to e-mail the organization?)
Does it contain information of use to me in my practice?
Are there helpful links to other related web sites?

 

• Government sites

• Find information for a patient traveling to the Caribbean. Connect to the Centers for Disease Control web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

Click on Travelers’ Health
Click on the Caribbean

• Find information on Viagra at the Food and Drug Administration’s web site.
  Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

Click on Human Drugs
Click on Drug Info
Click on Viagra

• Find information on the new high blood pressure guidelines at the National Institutes of Health.

www.nih.gov

Click on National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute
Click on News Alerts
Click on a document to open

• Find information on Lyme Disease at the Minnesota Department of Health.

www.health.state.mn.us

Click on Search
Type in Lyme
Click on Search
Click on any title to open
Click on your browser's Back icon
Explore some of the other features on the site

• Search for financial information on a charitable organization at the Minnesota Attorney General's Consumer Connection

www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer

Click on Charities
Click on Search the charities database
Scroll down to the search form
Type in Kinship of Minneapolis
Click on Find
Click on Kinship
Click on Find

• News

• Connect to the home page of the StarTribune. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.startribune.com

Explore the features of your choice.

• Connect to ABC News. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.abcnews.com

Click on Health & Living

or to CNN News

www.cnn.com

Click on Health

• Journals

Connect to the British Medical Journal web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.bmj.com

Connect to the Lancet web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.thelancet.com

Connect to the New England Journal of Medicine web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.nejm.org

In one or more of these sites, open a current issue and browse the articles.

 

Preliminary Searching

• Find information for a patient newly diagnosed with Graves Disease. Try the Healthfinder web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.healthfinder.gov

Click on Topics A to Z
Click on G
Using the pulldown box, select Graves Disease
Open some links

• Find a patient handout on Captopril. Try the Healthtouch web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.healthtouch.com

Click on Drug Information.
Type the term captopril

• Find patient information on prostate cancer. Try the Oncolink web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

cancer.med.upenn.edu

Click on Disease Oriented Menus.
Click on Adult Cancers.
Click on Genitourinary (Male) Cancers.
Click on Prostate.
Browse through listings.
Click on patient information.

• Find support group/chat group for parents of a child with Tourette Syndrome. Try the Family Village web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.familyvillage.wisc.edu

Click on Library
Click on Specific Diagnosis
Click on S/T
Scan the alpha list for Tourette Syndrome
Click open some sites

• Look for a cardiologist in Butte, Montana. Go to the American Medical Association web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.ama-assn.org

Click on Doctor Finder
Click on Search by name or medical specialty.
Click on ACCEPT.
Click on Medical Specialty.
Fill in form.

• Find a meeting at the Doctor’s Guide to the Internet web site. Click on the link below or hold down the CTRL key, type L, and type the address.

www.pslgroup.com/docguide.htm

Click on Medical conferences
Click on View conferences by subject
Click on a subject of your choice
Click on a conference of your choice

Use your browser's Back icon to return to the page where you can click on View conferences by date/location
Search for a conference in a warm climate in February, 1999

• MEDLARS searching

Go to the National Library of Medicine

www.nlm.nih.gov

Click on Search Medline free.
Click on Internet Grateful Med
Click back
Click on PubMed

Return to the Allina Library Home Page

www.allina.com/library/index.htm

Click on Knowledge Quest
Click access now (you will need a login and password)

Try one of the following searches on several different versions of Medline.

A. Review articles on Tourette syndrome
B. Strength training for older patients
C. Articles written by Michael E. DeBakey
D. Oregon and physician-assisted suicide
E. Valproate and pregnancy
F. Batista technique for heart reduction surgery--left partial ventriculectomy