WebMIRS User Guide Intro

WebMIRS Current Release Notes

Table of Contents

3.1 WebMIRS purpose

WebMIRS is a prototype Web-based multimedia database system created by the National Library of Medicine's Communications Engineering Branch as a research and development project.

The purpose of WebMIRS is to enable users to search for significant biomedical data which may be in multimedia form (text and images). Current WebMIRS databases supported were created from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics. WebMIRS provides a user friendly graphical environment for accessing these databases. Users can log in to WebMIRS from home or office, query the databases, and view and save query results. Since most people are familiar with their favorite Web browser, learning to use WebMIRS becomes very easy.

3.2 Overview of capabilities

WebMIRS let users log in to NLM's NHANES II and III database over the internet with a web browser. Because some users may be accessing WebMIRS through a slow modem connection, we provided the option to disable the download of images from the query results. Users can also save the text information they've obtained from WebMIRS onto their computer by following a few simple instructions and download a program to set up the proper security policy. The graphical representation of the database helps users understand the structures and relationships of the tables so that they can spend their time more efficiently on research when using WebMIRS. Because some people are used to the way the user interface look on their familiar platform and don't want to learn how to use a new interface such as the standard Java 2 metal look and feel, WebMIRS is capable of either the standard "Java" look or the native look (Windows, MAC or Unix XWindows,depending on what kind of computer is running WebMIRS).

3.3 Who is WebMIRS for?

WebMIRS is intended to be a research tool for health researchers and professionals in health statistics, epidemiology, and education. By using the correct analysis methods, the user may infer from WebMIRS data health parameter values that apply to the U.S. population for the period of data collection. WebMIRS also is a resource for comparative case studies and for digitized x-ray images.

Table of Contents

URL: http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/webmirs/userGuide/index-3.php
Updated November 15, 2001

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