Efficient MEDLINE searching of the radiologic literature

The Radiology Information Service at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University performs a wide range of functions from physician continuing education to a photocopy service, including approximately 450 demand literature searches annually. The complexity of the field of radiology, the rapid advances in hardware and techniques, and the variety of interests on the part of radiologists and basic scientists requesting searches make online literature retrieval a challenge for even the expert radiology librarian. This paper presents up-to-date searching terminology, suggested search formulations, and bibliographic sources which have proved valuable in the functioning of the Radiology Information Service.