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Search tips

Browsing

To browse AMA Policy, double click on one of the six categories of AMA Policy (Health Policies of the HOD, Code of Medical Ethics, AMA Constitution, AMA Bylaws, Governance Policies of HOD, Directives of HOD). Then double click on the heading for the section of policy you are interested in. Next, double click on the specific policy you are interested in.

How to Construct a Search:

1. Check the boxes for the databases you wish to search. For example, if you only want to search the House of Delegates and the Ethics databases, check both boxes. Check the Select All box if you want to search in Constitution and Bylaws, Ethical Opinions, and House of Delegates.

2. Type your keywords in the search box.

When choosing keywords, think of a word as a combination of letters and numbers. If you want to find an exact phrase, use "double quotation marks" around the phrase when you enter words in the search box.

In general, use lowercase text for your searches. When you use lowercase text, the search finds both uppercase and lowercase results. When you use uppercase text, the search finds only uppercase. For example, when you search for medicare, you'll find Medicare, medicare, and MEDICARE in your result pages. However, when you search for Medicare, you'll only see Medicare in the result pages.

To find words with a common root place an asterisk (*) after 3 characters. This will find matches in up to 5 trailing letters. For example, pay* would find pay, pays, payment, etc. The easiest way to ensure that your search locates both the singular and plural use of a word is to use the asterisk (*). For example, fee* will find fee and fees.

You also can conduct proximity searches or Boolean searches. Boolean operators allow you to search for words with specific relationships. These searches are helpful when you need to narrow a single word or phrase search. Boolean searches also facilitate finding policy adopted at a particular meeting. If you want information about Medicare policy adopted at either the Interim 1997 or Annual 1998 meeting, then you could search medicare AND (I-97 OR A-98).

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