Maintenance of Certification (MOC) — Additional MOC Information Online Searching: What Can It Do? How Can You Do It? There are keys to conducting an Internet search that will be quick and productive. With a little planning before you search, you'll save time and energy.
- Determine exactly what you need. Do you need background information on a rare condition? Or do you need the latest guidelines for imaging a common condition with a particular modality? Do you want continuing medical education (CME) associated with your topic? Decide as much as you can in advance of your search.
- Identify a few keywords or phrases associated with what you need to find. Be as specific as you can. A search for "pneumonia" is so general that it will result in millions of potential sources, but a search for "CT imaging acute interstitial pneumonia" will sift out much of what you won't need.
- Choose your search engine carefully, based on what kind of information you need. A broad engine, such as GoogleTM, will search millions of sites.
Beginning at a site like www.RSNA.org will restrict your search to sources in radiology.
Start with RSNA We're going to let you in on a searching secret: it's easier if someone else does some of the work for you! By using content from RSNA, you know that information has already been subjected to peer review. Conducting a successful search on RSNA's Web site can be done in several different ways.
You can begin with a general search at RSNA.org. In the upper right of the RSNA's home page, you'll see a small "search" box (labeled "Search RSNA.org") in which to enter text. Entering a topic here will result in pages from past and present RSNA Annual Meeting programs, Education Exhibits, and articles from Radiology and RadioGraphics. Beginning in the fall of 2007, using this approach will also identify a wide spectrum of content from preselected peer-reviewed radiology literature from multiple sources.
If you're certain about what kind of information you need, you can take a more direct route to finding it. From RSNA's home page, enter the Education Portal. This will allow you to search for information associated with CME in the form of Refresher Courses, Cases of the Day, syllabi, self-assessment modules (SAMs), and RadioGraphics monographs. Each type of educational material offered is listed on the Education Portal, and you can browse a range of materials in any one of 30 subspecialties.
You can also search for specific published articles by entering RSNA's Publications page. Beginning from the RSNA home page, just click on "Publications," and choose the index. From there, you can search Radiology, RadioGraphics, and RSNA News.
Other Filters Of course, RSNA is not the only source of high-quality peer-reviewed information on the Web, but your RSNA membership gives you more access to those sources than you might otherwise have.
Your access to Radiology and RadioGraphics allows you to search these and other journals using HighWire. On the Radiology or RadioGraphics home page, use the "Quick Search:" option at the top of the page, or click on "Advanced Search." From there, you can search any of the more than 1000 journals hosted by HighWire Press. Many of these articles are available without a subscription. Did you know that if you click on references in online Radiology and RadioGraphics articles, you will be taken directly to those references if they are in a journal hosted by HighWire Press?
RSNA.org also has links to other important radiology sources. In the maintenance of certification (MOC) section of the Education Portal, find links to the American Board of Radiology (ABR) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In the International portion of the Education Portal, find links to other international societies.
The National Library of Medicine is another source of information across disciplines. Begin at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ and you can search this archive in a number of different ways. PubMed is an archive of abstracts of journal articles in the life sciences. MEDLINE contains abstracts of articles specifically in medicine. MedlinePlus is a source of patient information, written and published by the experts at the NIH. Although it is not necessarily the most cutting-edge material, all of the information on these government sites is free and has been subjected to extensive peer review.
Using Online Tools Efficiently After a few successful searches, you'll find that using the Internet can be a powerful tool in your practice arsenal. You'll also find that RSNA can help you keep your online resources in a manageable form.
RSNA's MOC File is a convenient place to store key documents, including education material. Located at www.RSNA.org/Education/moc, the MOC File can currently accept Microsoft Word documents, WordPerfect documents, text files, and Excel spreadsheets, all materials that you will need to have on hand to document your MOC process with the ABR.
The RSNA CME Credit Repository is an invaluable tool for organizing your CME. Any CME credit you earn through RSNA-whether online, via mail-in tests, or at the RSNA Annual Meeting-is deposited in this repository as a benefit of your membership. Credit from non-RSNA sources can be self-entered. Log in at www.RSNA.org/cme, and get a cumulative CME report, or print CME and SAM certificates.
Take advantage of RSNA's My CME Action Plan to plan and organize your CME requirements. Especially as a part of the ABR's MOC process, the CME Action Plan presents you with an online template to plan and organize the activities you'll need to complete for your lifelong learning requirements.
The CME Gateway is an effort by RSNA and several other medical specialty organizations to allow you to access your CME resources and credit through a single "gateway." Any of the sponsoring organizations of this site to which you belong can be accessed via www.CMEgateway.org.
Online Searching and MOC Online searching plays an essential role in your quest for lifelong learning through the MOC program. RSNA makes every effort to help you search online for the best available educational offerings from RSNA and other organizations and academic institutions. The online RSNA Education Portal is your key to unlocking the rich educational resources on the Internet.
Useful Web Sites: For additional information on RSNA's MOC resources, call 1-800-272-2920.
