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Picture a web-based resource that collates information from the US National Institutes of Health “and other trusted sources” on over 500 diseases and conditions. Add a medical encyclopedia and general and specialist medical dictionaries, and supplement this resource with extensive information on pharmaceuticals and current news stories. Collect miscellaneous resources on current clinical trials, disease related organisations, and directories of hospitals and physicians. Provide complementary coverage of information in Spanish. Finally, add the powerful retrieval capabilities of Medline, and you have an overview of MEDLINEplus. Consider the following scenario:
A middle-aged man from Cleveland, Ohio, with diabetes mellitus searches MEDLINEplus for information on his condition. In particular, he wants to know what his physician means by “tight glucose control,” to find out about a drug called “rosiglitazone,” and to identify clinical trials and diabetes specialists within the state …