Browsing Basics

• If you aren't familiar with this browser, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the menu bar, as well as the icons in the button bar below the menu bar. These icons 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 lets create "bookmarks" or "Favorites."  If you are using Netscape, click on the Bookmarks pull down menu and select display bookmarks. Select Add Bookmark.  If you are using Internet Explorer, click on Favorites in the menu bar and select Add to Favorites ... from the drop-down menu.  When the dialog appears, just click OK.  Now note how your page appears at the bottom of your bookmarks / favorites menu.

• If you are viewing this document on the web, you will be able to click on the links in this page and jump to the sites without having to type any of the URLs in.  For this first one, try typing it in yourself.  Depending on your browser (Netscape, Explorer, etc.) select Open, Open Page or Open location from the File menu.  In the box that appears type the American Academy of Family Physicians' URL:.

Then click OK.  After the page appears, click on Other Sites. Scroll down to view some of the links under the categories of Clinical Resources, Government, and Medical Associations, among other topics. Click open a link to another site. Click on your Back button and explore other links or choose another subject.

Explore other areas of the AAFP web site.

• 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 Dermatology
        www.aad.org
American Academy of Otolaryngology
        www.entnet.org
American Academy of Pediatrics
        www.aap.org
American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
        www.aapmr.org
American College of Cardiology
        www.acc.org
American College of Emergency Physicians
        www.acep.org
American College of Physicians
        www.acponline.org
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
        www.acog.org
American Academy of Ophthalmology
        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?

The American Medical Association maintains a very comprehensive list of national medical specialty and other societies on their home page at

http://www.ama-assn.org/mem-data/directry/medspec/medspec.htm

• Government sites

• Check the health recommendations on travel to Botswana. Connect to the Centers for Disease Control web site.

Click on Travelers’ Health
Click on Geographic Health Recommendations .
Click on List of Specific Countries Within Regions.
Scroll down to find Botswana (or use the FIND IN PAGE feature in your browser)
Click on Southern Africa.
Scroll down and select Botswana on the menu and click Check Vaccination Requirements.

• Find information on Relenza at the Food and Drug Administration's web site.

Click on Human Drugs
Click on Drug Info
Click on Relenza

• Also from the FDA, find information about a new device which removes blood clots from coronary arteries.

Back up to the FDA homepage
Click on Search
Type in the phrase device AND coronary AND clots
Leave Search All of FDA highlighted
Click on Search
Scroll down to find the article.

• Find information on the recently released study confirming the importance of systolic blood pressure in identifying patients with hypertension.

www.nih.gov

Click on Institutes
Scroll down and click on National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Click on What's New
Click on the September document on the systolic blood pressure study.

• Find information on your county's health profile and compare it to the rest of the state at the Minnesota Department of Health.

www.health.state.mn.us

Click on Health Statistics
Scroll down to the section on Vital Statistics
Click on 1998 Minnesota County Health Profiles
Click on County in the Choose an Area box. Then click Enter Choice
Select a county by clicking in the map
Select a topic and then click Enter Choice
Explore some of the other features on the site

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

www.ag.state.mn.us

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
Select Most current year
Click on Show me

News

Connect to the home page of the Star Tribune.

Click on the Health section (under Variety in the left-hand column).
 

Connect to ABC News.

Click on Health & Living

or to CNN News

Click on Health

Journals

• Connect to the British Medical Journal web site.

www.bmj.com

• Connect to the Journal of Family Practice (JFP) and Journal Club.

www.jfampract.com

This expanded site includes JFP materials and all JFP Journal Club (POEM - Patient Oriented Evidence that Matters) reviews, as well as extensive links to medical sites and software reviews.

• Connect to JAMA at its new site.

www.jama.com

• Connect to the New England Journal of Medicine web site.

www.nejm.org

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

Find information for a patient newly diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Try the Healthfinder web site.

Click on Topics A to Z
Click on G
Using the pull-down box, select Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Open some links
 

Look for information on Meridia. Try the RxList - The Internet Drug Index.

Search for information on Meridia.
When you are done, go back to the main page and look at the Top 200 Prescriptions for 1997
 

Find patient information on prostate cancer. Try the Oncolink web site.

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.
 

Another excellent site for cancer information is the CancerNet resource at the National Cancer Institute

www.nci.nih.gov
 

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.

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.

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.

Scroll down and 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

Click on Search Medline free
Click on PubMed
Conduct some straightforward searches in the Basic Search mode (this is the default).
Some examples might include:

Relenza
strength training and the elderly
articles by ME DeBakey

Then try using the Advanced Search mode (select Advanced in the left-hand column on the PubMed home page). This will allow you to specify the database fields that you want to search. You can also open an index list of your terms by selecting the List Terms, instead of Automatic, option.
Other search examples might include:

review articles on vaginal births after cesarean
vascular complications in the diabetic elderly

Search on any other topics of your choice.