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Instructions |
Introduction to the National Library of Medicine
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) - a division of the National Institutes of Health - is the world's largest biomedical library. It has many resources on the web to help you become better educated about your health, and to help you make informed health decisions.
The address of the NLM web site is www.nlm.nih.gov
Links
- National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov)
Introduction to MEDLINEplus: How can it help me?
MEDLINEplus is a service of the National Library of Medicine. It contains comprehensive information on hundreds of health topics (including Hepatitis B and health insurance) and medications, as well as interactive tutorials and links to other health resources. It can even help you find a health care provider.
You can access MEDLINEplus via the link on the National Library of Medicine home page, or directly at medlineplus.gov.
Links
- MEDLINEplus (http://medlineplus.gov)
How can I find health information from A to Z on MEDLINEplus?
Over 600 health conditions and medical procedures are listed alphabetically, in the Health Topics section. You can search the topics by typing in the name of a health condition (or some other keyword) in the search box; alternatively, you can click on the Health Topics link, and use the alphabetical index to browse the list of topics in the database.
Links
- MEDLINEplus Health Topics (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html)
How can I find Hepatitis B information on MEDLINEplus?
Information related to Hepatitis B can be found by clicking on Health Topics, then the letter "H" in the alphabetical directory, and scrolling through the list of topics beginning with "H". Alternatively, you can type "hepatitis b" into the Search box, and click the Search button.
Links
- MEDLINEplus Health Topics (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html)
- MEDLINEplus: Hepatitis B (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hepatitisb.html)
How can I search for information about cirrhosis on MEDLINEplus?
You can find information about cirrhosis in exactly the same way that you find information on other health topics: through the alphabetical listings in the Health Topics section, or by using the Search feature. To search for cirrhosis on MEDLINEplus, type the word "cirrhosis" in the search box, and press the Search button. You will then see a list of all of the Health Topic database entries that mention cirrhosis; the first of these items is the main MEDLINEplus listing for cirrhosis.
Links
- MEDLINEplus Health Topics (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html)
- MEDLINEplus: Cirrhosis (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cirrhosis.html)
How can I use MEDLINEplus to get informations about drug therapies?
The Drug Information section contains an alphabetical listing of thousands of prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. It can be searched in exactly the same fashion as the Health Topics section - by using the search box, or by clicking on the Drug Information link and then selecting the first letter of the drug name from the aphabetical index.
Links
- MEDLINEplus Drug Information (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html)
How can I use MEDLINEplus to get information on lamivudine?
We can search for lamivudine by clicking on Drug Information, then the letter "L", and locating lamivudine in the list of medications that appears. Alternatively, we can search specifically for lamivudine, by typing that name in the search box, clicking the Search button, and clicking Drug Information on the next page.
Links
- MEDLINEplus Drug Information (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html)
How can I use MEDLINEplus to search for drug information, using brand names (such as Epivir-HBV)?
The MEDLINEplus Drug Information database lists medications not only by their generic name, but also by any brand names. So, we can use the search feature to get information on Epivir-HBV:
- Type "epivir" or "epivir hbv" into the search box.
- In the search results page, click the Drug Information folder (search results default to displaying entries from the Health Topics database).
- Select from the Drug Information entries displayed.
Links
- MEDLINEplus Drug Information (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html)
How can I access the interactive tutorials on MEDLINEplus?
Through MEDLINEplus, the NLM offers interactive slide shows on a number of health topics. These are accessed by clicking the Interactive Tutorials link, and browsing the list of tutorials that appears on the next page. On this second page, the tutorials are organized first by category, and then alphabetically.
(The MEDLINEplus tutorials require that the Flash plug-in be installed in your browser; this is the same plug-in used to view the "Show me" sections in this tutorial.)
Links
- MEDLINEplus Interactive Tutorials (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorial.html)
How can ClinicalTrials.gov help me?
ClinicalTrials.gov provides regularly updated information on a wide spectrum of federally and privately funded clinical research. This includes the purpose of the different trials, who may participate in each trial, and locations and contact information for each trial.
To find out more about clinical trials in general, click on the "What is a Clinical Trial?" link, in the Patients and Families section of the Hepatitis B Foundation website.
Links
- What is a Clinical Trial? (http://www.hepb.org/02-0162.hepb)
- ClinicalTrials.gov (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)
How can I find clinical trials for hepatitis B treatment?
You can do a general search by typing the condition name - hepatitis B, in this case - into the search box, and clicking the Search button.
The next page will then show a list of currently recruiting hepatitis B trials; if you would like to see a list that includes those trials that are not currently recruiting, you can select the corresponding checkbox on the search results screen, and the search results will automatically refresh accordingly.
While you are reviewing the list of studies, you can click on any of them to learn more. Alternatively, you can select the checkboxes for several studies at once, and then click the button labeled "Display Selected Studies", at the bottom of the page; this will then display the details for all of the selected studies.
Links
- ClinicalTrials.gov (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)
How can I focus the search so that the results are more applicable to my situation?
The Focused Search link leads to a more detailed form, where you can type in more information - about the health condition, as well as the trial itself (experimental treatment, location, etc.).
Links
- ClinicalTrials.gov Focused Search (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/screen/AdvancedSearch)
How can MEDLINE/PubMed help me?
MEDLINE/PubMed is the NLM's database of references to more than 11 million articles, published in 4600 biomedical journals. Most of the references in the database have short summaries and/or links to complete articles.
(Note: Most of the articles referenced in MEDLINE/PubMed are written for healthcare professionals.)
The simplest way to get to the MEDLINE/PubMed web site is through the MEDLINE/PubMed link on the NLM home page.
Links
- MEDLINE/PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed)
How can I use MEDLINE/PubMed to find articles on hepatitis B?
You can search for an article by typing the author's name, the title of the article, the name of the journal where the article was published, or the publication date, into the search box. You can also search for one or more keywords, by typing the keyword(s) in the search box. For example, you can type "hepatitis b", or "hepatitis b treatment", or even "hepatitis b and lamivudine" into the search box; the more specific your keywords are, the more focused the search will be.
Links
- MEDLINE/PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed)
How can I refine my search to retrieve only those articles most relevant to me?
You can narrow your search even further, by clicking on the Limits link, and using the options on the following page to specify language, publication type, publication date, etc. For example, you could restrict your search to return only those articles containing the keywords "hepatitis b treatment", where the article language is English, and the publication year is 2001 or later.
Links
- MEDLINE/PubMed Limited Search (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Limits&DB=PubMed)
You have completed the tutorial!
We know that it is important to be able to find reliable health information easily. The National Library of Medicine is a valuable source of such information; knowing how to use the NLM's searchable databases is an important step in becoming an informed consumer.
We hope that you found this tutorial about the National Library of Medicine's databases helpful. For more information, please visit the Hepatitis B Foundation website, at www.hepb.org.
How did we do?
We would appreciate your feedback on this tutorial;
please fill out our 
, or contact us at info@hepb.org.
Links to the databases covered in this tutorial
- MEDLINEplus (http://www.medlineplus.gov)
- ClinicalTrials.gov (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)
- MEDLINE/PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed)
Other links
- National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov)
- Hepatitis B Foundation (http://www.hepb.org)
- Tutorial Feedback Form (survey.aspx)