An online gold mine for medical students
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* Alison Sinclair

My entry into medical school coincided with the Web's entry into the popular culture. Indeed, prior to 1995 the Internet was the domain of academics and enthusiasts. Universities varied in their online offerings, although determined searching would turn up something somewhere in the world, whether at the NIH or in Argentina. Hand-held computers, of course, were still at the “fancy Filofax” stage of evolution.

Fast forward 6 years. Every university now has a homegrown set of educational resources and links. Medical journals can be searched at portals like PubMed ([www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/)) and the CMA's own Osler site ([www.cma.ca/osler](http://www.cma.ca/osler)), and accessed online. A number, including *CMAJ* ([www.cma.ca/cmaj](http://www.cma.ca/cmaj)), have removed all access restrictions ([www.freemedicaljournals.com](http://www.freemedicaljournals.com)).

A variety of medical textbooks are also accessible online, as listed at Student Bookworld ([www.studentbookworld.com/info/free/medical.htm](http://www.studentbookworld.com/info/free/medical.htm)) and MedicalStudent.com ([www.medicalstudent.com](http://www.medicalstudent.com)). The *British Medical Journal'*s collected resources ([www.bmj.com/collections](http://www.bmj.com/collections)) include textbooks on the basics of statistics, epidemiology and reading the literature.

Meanwhile, some dedicated souls have constructed impressive sites on their own. The one created by Dr. Ed Friedlander (The PathGuy, **www .pathguy .com**) contains pathology tutorials — including the approach to the unknown slide — definitions of medical vocabulary and summaries of general and systematic pathology for exam preparation.

The Canadian Federation of Medical Students Web site ([www.cfms.org](http://www.cfms.org)) offers members access to details about CFMS billeting, a catalogue of national and international elective opportunities, discount airfares and CFMS awards. A page of links leads to sites for Canadian universities, medical societies, more online journals and textbooks and, of course, residency information. More informally, the Med-1 Survival Guide from McGill University, one of several online guides produced by McGill, presents the insider's view ([www.med.mcgill.ca/~mss/guides/med1_guidebook/index.htm](http://www.med.mcgill.ca/~mss/guides/med1_guidebook/index.htm)).

No listing of survival tools would be complete without mention of hand-held computers. Such indispensable items as Harrison's Internal Medicine companion handbook, The Red Book, and the Intern Pocket Survival Guides are all available in electronic form (**www .hand heldmed.com**).

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/165/5/630.1/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/165/5/630.1/F1)

Figure.