ORLANDO, FLA, OCTOBER 11, 2007 – SearchMedica.com, the specialty-oriented professional medical search engine, announced today, at the 20th Annual U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress, that it has enhanced its search experience to allow psychiatrists and other clinicians to sort results by publication date. SearchMedica not only finds the Web’s most relevant professional medical information, it now also serves up the most timely clinical resources.
SearchMedica recently surveyed 6,000 physicians and found Google to be the search engine of choice among 51 percent of respondents. When asked about their biggest challenge using Google, though, 64 percent of psychiatrists surveyed said these searches returned too many irrelevant results. The second most common challenge, not enough clinical information in the search results, was reported by 22 percent of psychiatrists.
“We understand that physicians, including psychiatrists, have been frustrated by the inaccuracy of the results when conducting searches for clinical information on Google and other consumer search engines,” said Cyndy Finnie, senior product manager for SearchMedica. “Too often the results listings are outdated, consumer-focused or simply not credible. This search enhancement goes beyond removing the clutter and allows physicians to find the most recently published articles to address their patient care needs.”
In each of the SearchMedica vertical search engines, currently serving psychiatrists, oncologists and primary care physicians, clinicians receive a specialist’s view of the Web and an easy to use interface. SearchMedica.com leverages the medical expertise of thought leading medical editors, as well as practicing physicians to ensure that every result is clinically sound.
For instance, a Google search on the term “teen suicide,” a topic that has been in the news often as of late, returns more than 649,000 results, most of which are geared toward parents and patients. The same search on SearchMedica Psychiatry nets 208 results from some of the most credible online sources of medical information for physicians and practitioners. The new feature makes searching even easier since increasingly time-pressed physicians can now prioritize results based on publication date in addition to various categories or segments.
Anyone can use SearchMedica, but healthcare professionals are encouraged to register to receive updates about new content and tips on how to use various advanced tools within SearchMedica. SearchMedica.com recently was acknowledged for its outstanding user experience as a recipient of a 2007 Standard of Excellence WebAward.
About SearchMedica.com
SearchMedica.com indexes only authoritative medical information, approved for inclusion by medical editors and a physician editorial board. Medical professionals receive more relevant, smaller sets of search results from SearchMedica.com than from mainstream engines, which contain consumer-oriented, paid testimonials and other types of unreliable information. Since SearchMedica.com is advertiser supported, medical professionals pay nothing to use the specialty search engines. All SearchMedica search results are independent and unbiased. They contain well-known, credible journals, peer-reviewed research, and evidence-based articles written for practicing healthcare professionals. In addition to ranking search results according to relevance, SearchMedica also organizes results into categories such as practical articles and news, research reviews and editorials, evidence-based articles and meta-analyses, practice guidelines, clinical trials for patients, continuing medical education, and alternative-complementary medicine. SearchMedica is currently available at www.SearchMedica.com.
