A search tool based on 'encapsulated' MeSH thesaurus to retrieve quality health resources on the Internet

In the year 2001, the Internet has become a major source of health informat ion for the health professional and the Netizen. The objective of Doc' CISM eF (D'C) was to create a powerful generic search tool based on a structured information model which 'encapsulates' the MeSH thesaurus to index and ret rieve quality health resources on the Internet. To index resources, D'C use s four sections in its information model: 'meta-term', keyword, subheading, and resource type. Two search options are available: simple and advanced. The simple search requires the end-user to input a single term or expressio n. If this term belongs to the D'C information structure model, it will be exploded. If not, a full-text search is performed. In the advanced search, complex searches are possible combining Boolean operators with meta-terms, keywords, subheadings and resource types. D'C uses two standard tools for o rganising information: the MeSH thesaurus and the Dublin Core metadata form at. Resources included in D'C are described according to the following elem ents: title, author or creator, subject and keywords, description, publishe rs, date, resource type, format, identifier, and language.