MedInfoNow

• What is MedInfoNow?
  
• What is Medline?
  
• How does MedInfoNow differ from Medline?
  
• To what extent does Medline index journals in the social sciences?
  
• How does MedInfoNow differ from the GSA/OUP site?
  
• Does MedInfoNow provide access to full-text of the articles?
  
• Why should I purchase a subscription to MedInfoNow?
  
• One of MedInfoNow’s features is “Instant Answer.” What is this feature and how does it work?
  
• If I have other questions about MedInfoNow, who do I contact? 
  

Q: What is MedInfoNow?
A: MedInfoNow is the latest affinity program offered to GSA members. It is a well-established, respected literature update service delivering subscribers personalized updates of the most authoritative databases of journal articles (Medline®) and print and electronic books (Doody’s Review Service™) in the health sciences to 70,000 healthcare professionals who are registered users of MedInfoNow.

First introduced in 2001, MedInfoNow is different than any other literature service in the following important ways:

• It’s the only service that delivers expert searches (developed by medical librarians who are accomplished Medline® searchers) of more than 1,800 key topics in medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and healthcare, including gerontology and geriatrics.
• It has the easiest and most intuitive search experience of Medline® on the web. Its revolutionary search technology allows users to narrow or broaden a search with one click.
• It combines updates of the journal literature with updates of the book literature.
• It delivers knowledge and evidence to the user’s desktop, laptop or handheld, personalized to the topics selected by the user.

Q: What is Medline?
A: Medline is the premiere index of the biomedical journal literature. Launched more than 130 years ago as Index Medicus, it is a product of the National Library of Medicine and has been offered online as PubMed for many years.

Q: How does MedInfoNow differ from Medline?
A: MedInfoNow is one of many commercial services that licenses the Medline database from the National Library Medicine. Searching Medline has been traditionally a difficult exercise, as the articles in Medline are indexed according to Medical Subject Headings (“MeSH terms”) nomenclature devised decades ago by medical librarians. MedInfoNow offers the best search experience of Medline on the web, because the MedInfoNow software contains expert Medline searches of more than 1,800 topics of interest to healthcare professionals. In addition, MedInfoNow is the only literature update service that provides subscribers with personalized updates of both the journal article and the book literature.

Q: To what extent does Medline index journals in the social sciences?
A: Despite the fact that Medline is the premiere index of the biomedical literature, social science and social sciences are major topics in Medline. The Medline database indexes 90 sociology, social science, or social sciences journals. In addition, a search of Medline’s journals database returned 1,163 indexed journals that covered social sciences  subjects.  

Q: How does MedInfoNow differ from the GSA/OUP site?
A: The GSA / OUP site provides access to online versions of the GSA journals, along with other user-friendly features. MedInfoNow provides personalized access to the citations and abstracts of articles from all the journals you follow that are indexed in Medline. That means that you set up the topical areas you are interested in, and the MedInfoNow software pulls the articles that have been added to Medline in the last seven days in your topical areas of interest, and sends you a link to the list of those articles every week. In addition, MedInfoNow provides similar timely and authoritative coverage of new books in gerontology, geriatrics and other specialty areas you are interested in, which are added to the Doody’s Review Service database each week.

Q: Does MedInfoNow provide access to full-text of the articles?
A: When a user is looking at the abstract of an article she / he is interested in, there is a link on top of the title of the article that informs the users how to obtain the full text of the article in some cases for free and in other instances on a pay-per-view basis. The full text is available for free on about 17% of all articles indexed in Medline. In addition, if a user is affiliated with one of 2,500+ institutions affiliated with the PubMed LinkOut program, then that user is eligible at the MedInfoNow site for quick access to full text of articles from all the journals the user’s institution subscribes to.

Q: Why should I purchase a subscription to MedInfoNow?
A: If you feel compelled to stay up-to-date with the literature and you find it increasingly time consuming to do so, then we highly recommend you try MedInfoNow. As a GSA member, you can purchase a one-year subscription for just $69 / year, which is just $1.32 / week, less than your daily cup of coffee. Furthermore, members will receive a 22% discount from the price non-members pay.

Q: One of MedInfoNow’s features is “Instant Answer.” What is this feature and how does it work?
A: In addition to relying on MedInfoNow as a way to stay up to date and to manage the flow of information, the 70,000 registered users also use it as a quick way to get an answer from the current literature about a clinical or research problem they are confronting. When you click on the Instant Answer button on the Weekly Literature Update, you are brought to a form that allows you to search the nearly 3 million articles in the MedInfoNow database. To view a video describing this Instant Answer feature, click on this link, http://bit.ly/kNF0Zk.

Q: If I have other questions about MedInfoNow, who do I contact?
A: Contact the customer service staff of the firm that hosts MedInfoNow, Doody Enterprises, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and 312-239-6227.