SECTION 3: USING SEARCH ENGINES EFFECTIVELY

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE SEARCH TOOLS

MEDICAL or HEALTH CARE search tools are NOT traditional search engines, but share some of the same search features that are offered by search engines.

Medical/Health Care search tools also offer access to free and/or fee-based services and collections of health care resources. Many MEDICAL SEARCH TOOLS have resources for both health care professionals and consumers.

Advantages of using medical/health care search tools:

1. Their focus is specific to medicine, so users do not have to sort through non-medical resources when searching for health care information.
2. They usually provide indexes or organized subject guides that you can use instead of doing a general search.

Disadvantage to using medical/health care search tools:

1. Their collections of resources and links are usually small, so a search may not generate many results.
2. Some medical/health care search tools are fee-based only.

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