title: Evaluation of the google search appliance for patient cohort discovery.
abstract: Rapid location of patient cohorts with specific attributes is critical to accelerating translational research. Given the ever-increasing popularity of web search engines for information retrieval, we performed an evaluation the Google Search Appliance (GSA) as a potential tool for performing a fast and simple retrospective analysis of our patient record for researchers discovering study cohorts. Overall, the GSA did not provide a significant advantage over conventional database queries. Possible reasons for this are presented.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Informatics Research Center, Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oberg
authors.forename: Luke
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Melski
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Peissig
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Starren
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D018579:Patient Selection; D057386:Search Engine; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface