Finding Answers, Not Just Searching for Them HepLink simplifies, organizes and enhances the search
process. From a single web search page, you can simultaneously access and query
tens of millions of documents, numerous databases and websites and an amount of
information that is many times greater than that accessible on the Web's surface
alone ( i.e. what can be found through Google and other search engines)
including sixty different virtual libraries within the biomedical community. In
a matter of moments search results are available. No tracking down
The pinpoint search pages of HepLink were created in order to
help simplify the search process across the comprehensive sources of the HepLink
engine. A refined 'pinpoint' search page was created for the areas of
Legislation, Education, Clinical Practice, Research, News and Advocacy/Policy.
Sources included in these pinpointed search pages were chosen for their ability
to return the most relevant information to that specific sub search area.
No long hours of hopping from site to site, logging in,
submitting search terms, and cutting and pasting a master reference list.
HepLink allows individuals dealing with hepatitis to spend more time finding
answers to disease management issues and less time searching for them.
The biomedical community has long been one of the leaders in
electronic information sharing. With the development of Universal Medical
Language (UML) and large Web sites hosting major document collections, the
amount of available biomedical information becomes potentially very powerful.
Unfortunately as most Web users have lamented over the last half of the decade,
availability does not mean accessibility. And accessibility does not always
amount to usability. What currently exists are powerful localized pockets of
information located in what is coming to be known as the Deep Web Developed to
serve specific user communities, the content of most large Web sites is
inaccessible to most traditional Internet search engines that only scan the top
level of Web sites without querying the databases beneath. Harvesting
information at multiple sites becomes a tedious task of opening a search page
for each database, entering search terms, scanning the results, and then finding
ways to save, order, or retrieve documents.
Making Connections Across Research Agencies
Given that there can be hundreds of pertinent sites, gleaning
useful information can quickly become overwhelming. It's easier to stick to
local Web sites, ones closest to the user's knowledge realm. But that can mean
missing scores of important information that may speed research, improve
treatment regimens, and make connections with disease complications and patient
outcomes that might otherwise be missed. With HepLink, users don't need to know
which agency is working in a particular area or discipline to benefit from their
HepLink using Distributed Explorit searches multiple deep Web
database collections by translating user search requests into the syntax
required by the search engine for each database to be queried rather than simply
indexing the surface of the database like most search engines. Search requests
are then submitted in parallel to the various databases and brought back
seamlessly to the search results page.
HepLink is currently supporting the efforts of the National
Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR). The NVHR is a coalition of public and
private organizations, dedicated to reducing the incidence of infection,
morbidity, and mortality from viral hepatitis in the United States through
research, strategic planning, coordination, advocacy, and leadership.
about the technology behind HepLink