[Construction of directory for biomedical databases on INTERNET].
OBJECTIVE
To construct a global directory of biomedical databases(DBD), which can be used free of charge on INTERNET. It will be convenient for researchers to find out related databases quickly, easily and accurately by using DBD since there are not enough useful tools for database retrieval. Biomedical databases will be an accelerator in development of biomedicine with the help of DBD.


METHODS
PubMed and Google were main tools for searching related databases. Proper search strategy with rigorous indexing rules helped us to filter databases. The database management system was Microsoft SQL-Server 2000. The web pages of DBD were designed with Macromedia Dreamwaver MX. ASP (active server pages) technology was used to deal with the key words and scores sent by users.


RESULTS
There were 66 subjects and 1 258 databases in DBD at this time. We released the Chinese and English versions of DBD on the INTERNET at the same time  http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/DBList/index.htm  http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/DBList/index_en.htm   . Score system was also established to evaluate the content of the indexed databases. Users can search DBD by subjects  key words and alphabetic databases' names easily.


CONCLUSIONS
DBD has laid the primary foundation for further core biomedical database evaluation system. DBD, as a useful tool for biomedical database retrieval, will be of great aid to users since databases have played a more and more important role in the biomedical research.
Jing
Xia
X
Biomedical Informatics Laboratory, Peking University Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, Beijing 100083, China. xiajing@bjmu.edu.cn
Zhang
Qi-peng
QP
Guo
Qiang-hua
QH
Lu
Ming
M
Zhu
Xiao-hua
XH
Shi
Lei
L
Rui
Wei
W
Shang
Tong
T
D019992:Databases as Topic; D004181:Directories as Topic; D020407:Internet; D008490:Medical Informatics