Information Retrieval: A Health and Biomedical Perspective

From the reviews of the third edition: "The author traces the background of information retrieval in the health sciences, the most effective methods of retrieval, and research in the field. ... The book has two audiences, information specialists and practitioners, and shows both the most effective ways of doing research. ... this is a needed update, to bring both information specialists and researchers the latest in the best research techniques." (Mary J. Jarvis, Doody's Review Service, February, 2009) "Hersh's book offers engaging content on a domain specific application of search from an Information Science perspective. This book will no doubt help Computer Science students studying IR realise the importance of capturing user information needs in a field that primarily focuses on system engineering considerations. For more experienced IR readers ... this book is essential reading. ... I would recommend this book to IR researchers, including those who aren't working on biomedical IR." (Nicola Stokes, Information Retrieval, Vol. 13, 2010)

William Hersh, M.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. He also has academic appointments in the Division of General Internal Medicine of the Department of Medicine and in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Hersh is a professor and chief of the division of Medical Informatics and Outcomes Research and has developed a course built around the first edition. He has contributed to Shortliffe's Biomedical Informatics in with a chapter on information retrieval.

Basic Concepts.- Terms, Models, Resources, and Evaluation.- Health and Biomedical Information.- State of the Art.- Content.- Indexing.- Retrieval.- Digital Libraries.- Research Directions.- Evaluation.- System and User Research.- Related Topics.