Web 2.0 Awards

I explored Medstory from the Web 2.0 Award nominees. Having all that information, from such varied sources, in one list is remarkable. I searched for information on torn knee cartilage and got information as traditional as encyclopedia entries, explanations by orthopedic surgeons who also explain current treatments, herbal remedies, companies promoting their own knee braces, and as current as blogs with people's comments about their injury and testimonies from people who had been cured by prayer. The concept is very useful if you are working with patrons and want to respect their privacy--it lets them choose the information they want to read without having to go into explicit detail. It is a little overwhelming, though, because there were more than 12,000 entries--you need time to go through them and select relevant information. Medstory is divided into two categories: health and research. The search results for the research index appear not to be significantly different from the results that come up in the health index, but there are two very useful "subcategories" that can be used to refine the search in both indexes. Clicking on "Research Articles"allows you to search for research articles and "Clinical Trials" brings up information about current clinical trials. Citations about the current clinical trials include the scope and status of the study as well as contact information if participants are needed. Obviously, this could be life-saving. Just amazing.