Medical information retrieval: introduction to the special issue

Excerpt

Medical information search refers to methodologies and technologies that seek to improve access to medical information archives via a process of information retrieval (IR). Such information is now potentially accessible from many sources including the general web, social media, journal articles, and hospital records. Health-related content is one of the most searched-for topics on the internet, and as such this is an important domain for IR research. Medical information is of interest to a wide variety of users, including patients and their families, researchers, general practitioners and clinicians, and practitioners with specific expertise such as radiologists. There are several dedicated services that seek to make this information more easily accessible, such as the ‘Health on the Net’ system for the general public and medical practitioners (http://​www.​hon.​ch/​). However, despite the popularity of the medical domain for users of search engines, and current interest in this topic within the IR research community, development of search and access technologies remains particularly challenging. …