Bookmark This: Yottalook
Tired of sorting through attorney advertisements when you Google mesothelioma? Bookmark Yottalook, the search engine created by Khan Siddiqui, MD; Woojin Kim, MD; William Boonn, MD; and Nablie Safdar, MD. The creators used search algorithms to isolate and display only radiological content found in a Google search, but the tool is much more than a radiology-specific Google search. Yottalook has access to teaching files, research papers, and journals off-limits to the general-purpose Google search engine.
Siddiqui told RSNA’s Daily Bulletin that Yottalook is proving particularly useful to on-call radiologists.
“One fourth of all our searches happen after midnight, meaning people are using it while on call. They’re reading a case and need to find information.”
—Khan Siddiqui, MD, VA Maryland Health Care System, Baltimore
The developers have continued to refine and improve the search engine, based on how radiologists are using it, since introducing it in January 2007. New features include Yottalook Images, which trolls for and displays images from peer-reviewed online journals and copyrighted material; Yottalook Book, which filters radiology books; and Yottalook Anatomy, which searches a wide range of sources.
The past year’s worth of searches have enabled the developers to intuit what radiologists are seeking better and adjust algorithms based on that understanding. “We see these search patterns, and based on them, we optimize our search,” Siddiqui told the Daily Bulletin, Monday, November 26, 2007.
Cheryl Proval,
Vice President, Executive Editor, Radiology Business
Cheryl began her career in journalism when Wite-Out was a relatively new technology. During the past 16 years, she has covered radiology and followed developments in healthcare policy. She holds a BA in History from the University of Delaware and likes nothing better than a good story, well told.