Medline and PubMed will be able to synthesise clinical data

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7340.791

BMJ 2002;324:791 ( 30 March )

Letters

Medline and PubMed will be able to synthesise clinical data

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EDITOR $---$ In their editorial Smith and Chalmers call for a new and most welcome initiative that would provide access to a synthesisof valid, relevant clinical information.¹ Those of us responsiblefor the original Medline database wish success to any endeavourthat hopes to transform health care (and that might bring honourto the Queen). Your readers might be interested to learn aboutsome recent improvements of our own in thisdirection.

The US National Library of Medicine began to link sources on the internet from the inception of free PubMed access to Medlinein 1997. (It was vice president Al Gore, not the then first ladyHillary Clinton, who announced free access to Medline via PubMedat a ceremony in the US Congress.) The LinkOut feature of PubMedis designed to provide users with a wide variety of relevant webaccessible resources, including full text articles, biologicaldatabases, consumer . . . [Full text of this article]