Trip Database Blog

I’ve been testing the rather exciting specialist search sites on TRIP. Basically, these sites search both core TRIP content plus the top 10-15 journals in that particular speciality. We’ll be launching with 27 but this will soon reach 30. Below are two searches and screen shots of results. Lots to see, but a few things to point out:

Light at the end of the tunnel refers to both the new version of TRIP and part of a song title from one of my favourite bands (Half Man Half Biscuit). With the new site looming I’ve been acutely aware of my previous posts and the subsequent delays!

I first blogged about ‘what’s next for TRIP’ in June.

On July 11th I highlighted that I’d tested a first version of the new search algorithm.

In a July 20th post I predicted an end of September launch.

In August I suggested an early September launch.

On the 3rd Sept my post started with “What a surprise, there has been a delay!” and then suggested an early October launch.

October 6th I suggested the week starting 15th October.

I’d love to be able to guarantee it’ll be out next week, but after this review I’m loathed to! We are very close – honest! In future, for the next upgrades (which are already planned) I’ll try and remember how poor my predictions are!

No, not something we’re considering! However, this is intersting:

Hakia, a natural language search engine, has just added a new spin to search: social networking. Their new Meet Others feature lets you connect with others who are searching for the same things you are.

Click here for full story

Thanks to intueri for this post.

A search on TRIP locates just two articles, neither particularly pertinent, but one links to “Spook house sporotrichosis. A point-source outbreak of sporotrichosis associated with hay bale props in a Halloween haunted-house.”

Thanks to David Rothman for his post (click here) on VisualDxHealth. I like the site (click here) and am hoping to add their content to our patient information collection!

I have just come across Insider Medicine. I’m still trying to grapple with the service which states:

“Insidermedicine is a physician-led news organization that allows you to keep on top of the latest medical information by watching our unique videos that are created each and every weekday by our team of medical experts. Our goal is to reach patients, medical doctors and students around the world to ensure that each is receiving a daily “evidence based” health and medical update.”

I’ve embedded the webcast that appears on the homepage today. I don’t think this format is typical of the site (it squeezes two minutes of normal speech into 60 seconds – which makes it sound way too speeded up).

Pulse CO-Oximeter, Extreme Stress, Medical Errors, FluMist Safe for Children

http://insidermedicine.ca/IMHomePlayerNew.swf

Left_Coronary_Artery_PACran

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=7585919423573443431&hl=en-GB

I’m just experimenting to see how this might look in a few places on the new TRIP!

When we moved to free access just over 12 months ago, we naively thought that advertising revenue (from Google Ads) would be fairly lucrative. By going free-access we reasoned (rightly) that traffic would grow. This extra traffic, we thought, would ensure a dependable income. In September, TRIP was searched over 500,000 times, our income from Google ads was pitiful!

I’ve just searched on TRIP for asthma and the adverts returned (in a prominent position) were:

• 10 Diets rules that work (from http://www.fatloss4idiots.com/)
• Asthma (http://www.healthline.com/)
• Evidence Based Medicine (ebmg.wiley.com)
• Asthma (allergy.healthvilliage.com)

Hardly inspiring! The majority of the adverts are aimed at general internet users – as opposed to our predominantly clinician user-base.

It’s not just TRIP that struggle to make revenue from adverts. Take the BMJ site, one of the most viewed clinical sites on the web. Most of the adverts on their homepage is highlighting other BMJ products e.g. BMJ master classes, BMJ learning.

What I don’t understand and I hope someone can explain, is why there aren’t any better solutions!

On one hand we have pharmaceutical companies with deep pockets desperate to get their message out to clinicians. On the other hand we have a significant number of sites, mainly used by clinicians, keen to boost their income and happy(ish) to accept adverts.

Why the post? I’m hoping someone will read it, knock some heads together and devise a decent system that will relive the pharma companies of some of their advertising monies and in return allow them to place their message so that it’s viewed by clinicians. I can only see this as a ‘win win’.

As sites get more complex, so do the design issues! We may well have got most of the technology right, but we’re still battling to get the design right.

When we decided to add the significant number of specialist sites we didn’t suspect the issues thrown up relating to usability. Questions we’ve raised and tried to answer include:

• How do users of TRIP get to know that the specialist sites exist?
• Should the specialist site look like TRIP or do they need their own identity?
• If you go to one specialist site, how likely are you to move to another specialist site?
• How should you navigate, consistently, between sites?

One of the big issues about design and websites is making the functionality ‘there’. So if a user need to use/activate a function it is easily ‘findable’. However, you have to balance the findability of the function with the relative importance. It makes sense to have the search box displayed prominently but there is little point having the link to this blog equally prominent. At the bottom of the post is a mock-up of the new homepage. Will it still be like this at launch, we’re not sure.

So we’re trying to get the balance right. One thing we won’t do is rush to meet some self-imposed deadline to have the new site ready and launched. We may still get the site out by the end of the week, but only if we’re happy.