title: Searching the medical literature.
abstract: The widespread use of computers and the Internet have made searching the medical literature easier and more accessible to most physicians. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) maintains MEDLINE, a comprehensive, cross-referenced database of citations to the medical literature covering 1966 to the present. The NLM maintains several other literature databases that are also available online. In 1996, the NLM began providing free, unlimited access to MEDLINE to all Americans over the World Wide Web. This article discusses how to perform effective and efficient literature searches using MEDLINE and other databases.
authors.affiliation: The Bobby R. Alford Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Communicative Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008523:MEDLARS