Automated batch searching of MEDLINE for DXplain

DXplain is a medical diagnostic aid program developed and maintained at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. The script used was a 28-step algorithm which was designed to download the most recent review articles about each of the DXplain diseases. The system provides the user with the ability to specify the number of articles which he or she would like returned from MEDLINE. To obtain references for the diseases in the DXplain bibliographic database, a generic search strategy was created and then combined with a communications protocol for MEDLINE. The system's efficacy has been tested on the concepts contained in the DXplain disease names. The system takes the DXplain disease name and identifies MeSH terms or their equivalent from within this unstructured input. These terms are then utilized to search MEDLINE. How the searches are constructed and the order in which they are performed depend on a user-defined script (protocol for querying MEDLINE). These scripts can be run repetitively to cover multiple concepts. This technique for searching MEDLINE was used to download citations that will be used as references for diseases in the DXplain database. A description is given of the technique by which the articles were retrieved, as well as the review process and the success rate of the system in identifying appropriate articles.