ELECTRONIC MEDICAL INFORMATION SERVICES.

When choosing an electronic medical information service, consider the comprehensiveness of the libraries offered and how they fill ones' particular needs. Some services are specialty oriented (such as ORTHOBASE and EYENET); while others offer some or all of the following: a selection of full-text journals, full-text books, indexes or abstracts, all geared to meeting the needs of almost any search. Searches that are routinely conducted on the new electronic medical information services include: Comprehensive bibliography: where a search is made for all possible references to a given topic. Selective bibliography: where a search is made for a few, specific references. Author: where a search is made for articles or works by a certain author. Specific document: where a search is conducted for one, specific document from a defined citation. Verification: where a search is used to verify the accuracy or thoroughness of a cited reference. Identification: where a search is employed to complete a reference, such as an article that appeared in a specific edition of a medical journal. Filing: where a data base can act as an indexing system for search and retrieval of personal medical literature files.