PubMed Quick Tip #13: Highlighting Your Search Terms

Who wouldn't appreciate having their search terms highlighted as you browse your PubMed results?

I find it very helpful to use the highlight feature. For example, the title of a paper may sound quite promising, but if you use the highlighting feature to look for where those words appear in the PubMed abstract, you might find that there are very few, if any, of your search terms in the abstract. This indicates that the paper may not be worth reading.

Here's how to activate the highlighting feature:

(1) Sign into your MyNCBI account at the top right of PubMed (if you don't have an account, you can set one up at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/register/)

(2) Click on the Preferences link in the left menu

(3) Select the Highlighting link to choose a color

(4) Select the green Save button to remember your preference


TIP:

Keep yourself signed in to MyNCBI with the "Keep Me Signed In" checkbox that appears when you first sign in to MyNCBI. This way your highlighting feature will always be on.

iRadiology App

The iRadiology App is available for free to download at the iTunes Apps store.

This app allows you to browse amongst 500+ radiology cases to improve skills to interpret plain film, CT, and MRI readings.

The cases are based upon materials from Dr. Gillian Lieberman, the Director of Harvard Medical Student training and Associate Director of the Residency Program at Beth Israel Medical Center.

You can increase the zoom capability on your iPhone to better view the images:

1. Go to "Settings", tap "General", then "Accessibility"
2. Tap "Zoom", and slide the Zoom feature to the "On" position

Tapping on the "Findings" link related to an image will bring up more information pertaining to the featured clinical case. One medical student reviewer on the web commented that he found this to be high yield information in studying for the USMLE 1 Steps 1 & 2 exams.

Check it out!