Access to MEDLINE database now free
By Sid Perkins
UPI Science News
WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- Vice President Gore announced that world's
largest medical database is now free, and available on the World Wide
Web.
MEDLINE, which contains nearly 9 million entries from all fields of
medicine and is growing by more than 1,000 entries per day, had been
available only to those who registered and paid a fee.
While conducting the first free search of this Website, the vice president
looked for information related to the treatment of ruptured Achilles
tendons. Gore, who had previously suffered such an injury, quickly found
several articles that dealt with the subject. He was impressed that the
information he found in the MEDLINE database was remarkably similar to
what he received from his doctors at the National Institutes of Health
when he underwent surgey there.
"Most every week brings us closer and closer to new medical
breakthroughs," the vice president said. "But all this progress doesn't
mean much unless we can get that information into the hands of those who
need it most. MEDLINE will be an invaluable tool for getting the right
information to families and physicians -- when and where they need
it."
Information in the MEDLINE database can be found on the World Wide Web at
"www.nlm.nih.gov". This Website joins an estimated 10,000 other
health-related sites on the Web, some of which may be providing biased or
unreviewed health information.
"We owe it to the public to make the very best information available,"
said Donald A.B. Lindberg, director of the National Library of Medicine,
which operates MEDLINE. "This (Website) is unquestionably one place to get
the most reliable and the most authoritative health information
available."
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