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[Biomedical information on the internet using search engines. A one-year trial]
Salvatore Corrao1, Francesco Leone, Sabrina Arnone
1Unità Operativa di Metodologia Clinica ad indirizzo epidemiologico-statistico, Azienda di Rilievo Nazionale ad Alta Specializzazione Ospedali Civico e Benfratelli, G. Di Cristina, M. Ascoli, Palermo. s.corrao@tiscali.it
Recenti Progressi in Medicina
|March 23, 2004
Summary
General and meta-search engines offer utility for finding biomedical information, but caution is advised due to extreme web content dynamism. Reliability varies, impacting the retrieval of validated health data.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Informatics
- Information Science
- Web Science
Background:
- The internet is a vast resource for information, including biomedical data.
- Search engines are crucial for accessing online information, but their reliability for validated biomedical content is uncertain.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the reproducibility and reliability of general and meta-search engines for retrieving pediatric or evidence-based biomedical information.
- To evaluate the stability of search results over a one-year period.
Main Methods:
- Searches were conducted using keywords 'pediatric' or 'evidence' on 9 international search engines and 1 meta-search engine.
- The first 20 citations from each search were analyzed at baseline and after one year.
- Formal quality, domain extensions, and citation stability were evaluated as reliability criteria.
Main Results:
- Significant dynamism in web information was observed, with considerable changes in search results over one year.
- The number of consistently cited websites varied across search engines, indicating differing levels of stability.
- Formal quality and domain extensions showed some correlation with reliability but were not definitive indicators.
Conclusions:
- Extreme dynamism of online information necessitates caution when using search engines for reliable biomedical data retrieval.
- Search and meta-search engines can be valuable for initial information gathering and identifying institutional websites.
- A conscious approach is recommended for navigating the biomedical information landscape online.