Using Google Scholar and Pub Med for Patient Education
Online tools and technology continue to make it easier for patients and their families to access current research in the medical field.
Google Scholar is a specialized search engine created by Google. It provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature: articles, theses, books and research abstracts from academic publishers, professional societies, universities and other websites. Search results include the number of citations, indicating the number of other publications that have used the article as a primary source. The Google Scholar website is scholar.google.com.
Another useful search tool is PubMed, the database search tool of the US National Library of Medicine, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The database provides free access to indexed citations and abstracts for medical and scientific journal articles. The PubMed website is www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed.
The public can search both Google Scholar and PubMed for “prostate cancer” to learn more about published, reputable research in prostate cancer. Patients can also search for “William Catalona” to view Dr. Catalona’s publications. To date, he has authored or co-authored 626 scholarly publications, including 476 listed in PubMed.