CompuServe has many programs for reading GIF files, and converting GIF files to other graphical formats. Through IQuest, we searched medical databases. Simple menus helped define relevant search terms. When done, IQuest searched selected databases for us, and presented the finds on our local computer screen. The basic rate for completing the search was US$9.00. In addition, we paid the normal fees for using CompuServe. From Norway, this amounted to around US$ 40/hour at 2400 bps when logging on through the local Infonet node at that time. Today, it costs less. This gave us up to 10 article headlines, when searching in bibliographic databases. Abstracts of selected articles were displayed on our screen for an additional US$2.00. We used the search mode "SmartScan" in the area "Medical research." IQuest searched several databases with a minimum of manual intervention. First, it told us that the following databases would be included in the search:
BRS databases:
Ageline - Contains references to and abstracts of materials on
aging and the elderly. Covers psychological, medical, economic,
and political concerns.
AIDS Database - Includes critically selected articles covering
all aspects of AIDS, (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), and
AIDS-related research.
AIDS Knowledge Base - Provides an online textbook of the most
current information on AIDS available from San Francisco General
Hospital.
Combined Health Information Database - For professionals,
patients, and the general public, CHID contains references to a
variety of materials on arthritis, diabetes, health education,
digestive diseases, and high blood pressure. Provides abstracts.
Embase - Includes extensive abstracts of articles related to
biomedicine from medical journals worldwide. About 40% of the
references are online only.
Rehabdata - Covers articles, books, reports, and audiovisual
materials dealing with the rehabilitation of the physically and
mentally handicapped. References only.
Sport Database - Indexes publications dealing with sports,
including training, medicine, education, and history. Drawn
mostly from English and French with technical articles from
other languages.
Dialog databases: BioBusiness - Deals with the business aspects of biotechnology and biomedical research. Draws from BIOSIS and MANAGEMENT CONTENTS. BIOSIS Previews - Provides international coverage of all aspects of biological science. Cancerlit - Monitors articles from journals and other technical publications dealing with all aspects of cancer research throughout the world. Includes abstracts. Clinical Abstracts - Covers human clinical study articles of major importance selected from leading medical journals. Includes all aspects of clinical medicine. Corresponds to Abstracts in Internal Medicine. Abstracts available. Life Sciences Collection - Abstracts technical literature in the life sciences from journals and other scientific publications worldwide. Medline (1966 - to date) - Indexes articles from medical journals published worldwide. Corresponds to Index Medicus, International Nursing Index and Index to Dental Literature. Includes abstracts in roughly 40% of the records. SciSearch - Monitors worldwide literature across a wide range of scientific and technological disciplines. Produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).
Then we entered our search term: "LIVER AND CYST/". The search word
"CYST/" signified that "cyst" should match any words starting with
these four characters.
While searching, IQuest gave the following progress report:
Scanning BRS databases.
Accessing Network………..Completed.
Accessing Database Host…..Completed.
Logging on………………Completed.
Logging on (second step)….Completed.
Selecting Databases………Completed.
Each period equals one line of scanned data. This may take several minutes…………………………..
It continued in the same way with a "Scanning Dialog databases." When the search results were presented, we glanced quickly at the article abstracts, ordered two articles to be sent us by mail and typed BYE. CompuServe reported "Off at 09:12 EST 17-Nov-88 Connect time = 0:35." The two articles arrived Norway by mail a few weeks later. The whole trip, including visits in medical forums, took 35 minutes. The cost, including local telephone and network charges, was US$95. Of this total cost, the extra cost of searching through IQuest amounted to US$54.00. We all felt that the costs were well justified.
| A note about the costs: The online tour was done manually, | | using full menus. We discussed our search strategy while | | connected, which is more expensive than logging off to plan | | the next moves. Also, note that the extra cost of searching | | IQuest ($54) was not time dependent. |
Right now? I have promised to donate one kidney to my wife when the time comes. This has prompted me (1993) to join a mailing list for "Organ transplant recipients and anyone else interested in the issues" (TRNSPLNT@WUVMD.BITNET).