A New and Better Search Engine for Psychiatrists

In 2006, Psychiatric Times upgradedits Web site (www.PsychiatricTimes.com) to make it more user-friendlyand to provide more features of interestto our readers. As another step to enhancethe value of the Web site, PsychiatricTimes recently introduced a newsearch engine-SearchMedica/Psychiatry.This tool has been added to enableusers of our Web site to search not onlythe Times's archives but also the psychiatricprint literature, Medline, and othercarefully selected and screened Internetsites in a manner that is very practitioner-friendly.

What makes SearchMedica/Psychiatry better?

• It uses only sources screened for reliabilityand interest to psychiatrists, sothat it will retrieve only professionalqualityinformation, with no unfilteredconsumer Web sites of dubiousvalidity.
• It includes practical journals and othersources of information that youcan use daily, rather than being limitedonly to the research literature.
• It allows you to view your results by"Categories" of information thatphysician advisors have identified asbeing most important to practitioners.

How to use the power ofSearchMedica's Categories
Just type a topic or question in the querybox and click on Search. If the initial resultsdisplayed in the center columnseem to be the topic you are after, lookover to the gray boxes at the left of yourscreen.

Are you most interested in PracticalArticles and News? Then click on thisCategory and the display will change toshow only this subset of your search results.Do you want to see what key opinionleaders have to say about yourquery? Then click on Research Reviewsand Editorials.

Do you have a patient you mightwant to refer for inclusion in a clinicaltrial? Use the Clinical Trials for Patients Category. Interested in evidence-basedmedicine? Click on the EvidencebasedArticles and Meta-analyses button.Or if you are looking for PracticeGuidelines, select that button. Want toearn CME credit while filling in a gap inyour knowledge base? Choose the ContinuingMedical Education button.And if you are interested in exploring alternativetreatments or learning howsuch treatments your patient may alreadybe using might interact with thetherapies you are prescribing, use theAlternative-Complementary MedicineCategory.

In addition to these useful Categories,SearchMedica will soon be introducinga search Category for Patient EducationMaterials, such as brochures andother handouts to help your patients understandtheir condition and follow prescribedtreatments.

Finally, SearchMedica offers a feedbackfunction so that you can let the developersof the engine know whether asearch was helpful to you and providethem with feedback they can use tomake the engine even more useful andeffective.

SearchMedica in general and theseCategories in particular have been createdto save you precious time and helpyou improve patient care. Content willbe added and functional improvementswill be made continually.

We commend this useful tool to you,our readers, in hopes that it will makeyour literature searches more focused,productive, and responsive to your particularneeds and interests.