Yottalook Anatomy

With the new upgrade, we moved the Yottalook Anatomy to the main engine after many revisions and updates. We have found that many users look for anatomy-related information online, but the information they are looking for usually are not contained in the first set of results returned due to various reasons. For the anatomy engine, we have focused on atlas-type of content. We also included various journal articles that contain anatomy-related information.

You can access this engine by clicking on "Anatomy" on top of the search box.

With the new version, we have also added feature to automatically detect when a user is searching for anatomy and specifically filter out results so that they appear similar to the dedicated anatomy engine even when the user is searching for information on the main "Web" engine. This is just one of many new algorithms we have implemented to better understand the incoming query and tailor the results displayed accordingly.

We always welcome feedback, so please feel free to contact us with any suggestions.

New Yottalook!

Last night, we upgraded our Yottalook to a new version. We have been in development for the past several months, working to add various features which we hope typical users of Yottalook would find useful. I will try to outline some of the new features in this blog and expand on each new feature in my upcoming blog entries.

When you first get to the main Yottalook page, you will notice various "tips" on the bottom. These briefly demonstrate some of the new features that have been added. They also contain links that you can click on, which will give live demonstration of the described feature.

We added a new feature called, "Related Terms". Now, when you type in a word and if it has 'related terms', such as synonyms, those will also be displayed in a little blue box. This will give you options to select different related terms. This feature also allows more relevant results to be displayed. Try terms like "abdominal angina" and "phakomatosis".

Time to time, you will see "Yottalook Link" or Yottalink for short. They provide what we considered high yield content or links to content which you may find useful. They are not ads but rather short-cuts, if you will, to specific contents. To see an example, type in, "pulmonary nodule". You will notice that it will not simply take you to the Radiology article on Fleischner Society's guideline on solitary pulmonary nodules less than 8 mm detected incidentally on nonscreening CT, but it will actually take you directly to the table that contains all this recommendation, giving you instant access wherever you have internet access. Try also, "knee mri anatomy" and see what Yottalook Link you're given.

Because we continue to use Google's backend, you will continue to get their "Did you mean" feature which corrects for any misspellings and provides users with possible alternative suggestion/correct spelling. We have found, however, that this feature is not tailored for the medical professionals. As a result, we have added our own "Did you mean" option. Try typing in "PE" for example and you will see three different options which are all medical terms. You can always tell when we're providing you with alternative suggestions by looking for "(powered by Yottalook)".

I will describe more new features in my next blog.

Yottalook Anatomy: New Changes & Tips

This past month, we have been continuing to improve the current beta Yottalook Anatomy engine. You can access this engine either in our Yottalook Labs or directly by typing in http://anatomy.yottalook.com.

One of the common search queries for radiologists is related to anatomy. This engine was designed to provide anatomy-related information. Below is a set of revised refinements.

The engine will return results first from various online atlases. Hence, if search for "knee" and then select the "AP/PA" refinement, you will get a result that would show you a labeled radiograph image of a frontal view of the knee. By default, the online atlas results will show up first.

However, some of you may be looking for radiology journal articles on anatomy. Then, you can try to refine your search further by selecting "Search Radiology Journals >>". For example, type in "deep transverse metatarsal ligament" and then select "Search Radiology Journals >>" and then click on "Images Only" to get a drawing of it in a radiology journal.

Or, if you are just looking for detailed anatomy information from a classic anatomy textbook like Gray's Anatomy, simply click on "Search Gray's Anatomy".

Give it a try today and give us feedback on how to improve this engine.

Yottalook Images Improvements

I know we at Yottalook have been rather quiet this past month in terms of blog entries, but it is because we have been extremely busy working on new features. While many of the features are still being tested internally, I wanted share with you some of the new features that have been added this past month. This particular blog entry will describe some of the new features added to the Images engine.

First, we have expanded the exclusion options to exclude not only "Charts/Graphs" but also "Histo" for histology as this has been a feature that has been requested by some of the users.

Second, now the users have two options of displaying their results. You will notice the new set of options below the search box called "Individual Fig" and "Grouped Fig". The first option is selected by default. The second option "Grouped Fig" is a new option when selected returns not one but all the images from a particular article. This option is useful if you are looking for a series of images from a particular article so that you don't have to click on individual result links. Below is a graphical representation of how the returned results would differ. You can see this by clicking on the "What's this?" link next to the options. This feature is also in response to various users' request for a more grouped results. We hope you will find these features useful and potentially speed your browsing. If you have any suggestions, please provide your feedback.

Yottalook with New Interface

We have updated our Yottalook interface. The "References" engine has been renamed as "Web" and has been made the default engine. This change was made as what is now the "Web" engine has a broader coverage of radiology-related web content than the "Images" engine. You can still access the "Images" engine through the hyperlinked-interface both on the main page as well as the results pages.

If you click on the "Images" engine without entering a search query, it will take you to the "Images" main page. If you click on the "Images" engine after you type in the query term, you will be taken directly to the "Images" results page. The benefit of the new hyperlinked-interface is that it allows users to switch between the two engines without having to retype in the search term and quickly view the results from different engines.

Exclude Charts and Graphs on Yottalook Images

Today we added a feature to exclude charts and graphs from the Yottalook Images results. By using a certain set of terms, checking the “Charts&Graphs” box will attempt to exclude charts and graphs of various types. It is a temporary solution while we work on a more robust method of excluding certain set of images.

Yottalook with Improved User Interface

While radio buttons work well for selection of which search engine to use from the Yottalook homepage, its use and function on the results page have been less than optimal with the Reference engine always being selected by default regardless of the engine used to get to the results page. Today, we announce improved user interface that addresses this issue. Now, you will be directed to the specific results page for the search engine used. In addition, with the other engine hyperlinked on top of the search box, the user can easily switch back and forth between the Images and References engines and see the results change without having to retype in the search term(s) or pressing Enter/Search button following selection of the alternate engine.

In addition, we have launched a separate advanced search option for the Images engine. From the main page, selection of "Advanced Search" will open up different Advanced Search page depending on which engine has been selected (via radio button).

Yottalook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yottalook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Woojin created a Wikipedia entry for Yottalook today. Our focus is to educate the community about the need for vertical search engine for specific health care domain and also address some of the information needs for radiologists and trainees in clinical practice today.

Help us refine the description. I hope we can make the Wikipedia entry look more like an independ neutral review rather than an advertisment.

Yottalook On BlackBerry

Yottalook Mobile really looks nice on the new Blackberry Pearl. Here are some images for a search on "enchondroma".

You need to change the browser configuration so that the refinements and layout looks correct and are readable. Go into Option> for the browser and uncheck all items. If you just uncheck the "support style sheets" option, it may work correctly. This behaviour varies for various BlackBerry models.

Again, please give us feedback and let us know how your mobile experience is.

Yottalook Goes Mobile

A lot of users have been asking for compatibility of Yottalook with mobile devices and PDAs, so we are releasing an alpha version of Yottalook Mobile (http://mobile.yottalook.com) for user feedback and comments.

So go ahead and give us comments, report bugs or any other issues that you may have with this. Remember, when you click on a result, you are directed away from Yottalook.com and we have no control over the look of the resulting site.

Please report any sites that you feel completely fail on mobile devices. Point your PDAs and mobile devices to http://mobile.yottalook.com and enjoy.

Yottalook Anatomy - Revised Refinements

Today, we are releasing new refinements for the Yottalook Anatomy search engine (www.yottalook.com/labs/yottalook_anat.html). First, you will notice a new refinement called, "Atlas >>". Selection of this "label" will direct the user to another set of label hierarchy, which includes modality and axis plane. What's the purpose? One of the original purposes of creating a radiology-centric anatomy search engine was to serve as a source of various online atlases. We wanted to separate out the atlases from other anatomy-related sites and journal articles. Now, selection of "Atlas >>" will only link you to online atlases. For example, type in "knee" and do a search. Then, click on "Atlas >>". Once you have been directed to the next level of labels, select "AP/PA" and click on any of the returned results.

In addition, similar to the current refinements in the Yottalook References engine, you will find "Google Scholar" and "Not enough results?" labels, which will search through Google Scholar and the entire web, respectively. Also, similar to the current References engine, we have implemented a checkbox option for returning only articles in PDF format.

Yottalook Anatomy Update - Get Radiological Anatomy Content From Select Journals

Following the release of Yottalook Labs this past week, I had one of the residents test out the Yottalook Anatomy engine (www.yottalook.com/labs/yottalook_anat.html). The first anatomical structure he wanted to look for was "Artery of Adamkiewicz". After couple attempts at finding the correct spelling, we found out that the engine failed to return any results. Surprised, I broadened the search by looking up "Artery of Adamkiewicz" on Google Images and snap. I still was not satisfied with the search results. When I did a web search for the term, I got results from sites such as Wikipedia and Who Named It. As a radiologist, when I type in "Artery of Adamkiewicz", I expect to find either information about that anatomical structure and/or an image of it. This little experience has led to revising the engine. Since this past week, we have tweaked our engine to search only for anatomy-related information from select radiology journals. The reasons for limiting the number of journals covered were two fold: 1) to maximize relevancy for those in the field of radiology and 2) to test out this new algorithm prior to increasing the number of journals covered. As a result, now when you type in "Adamkiwiecz", you will get results on this structure that is (hopefully) more relevant to radiologists.

Yottametta Adds 7 More Journals

Yottametta is one of the Yottalook Labs projects (www.yottalook.com/labs/yottametta.html). This week we added following journals in its coverage: Chest and AHA journals, which include Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Circulation, Circulation Research, Hypertension, and Stroke. As of today, the Chest journal contains over 11,000 and AHA journals all together contain over 169,000 figures and tables. Not all the images are radiology-related images, but addition of these journals gives radiologists access to even more images from peer-reviewed sources from a single site. The users should understand one difference with these journals when used with Yottametta. When you click on the tab after entering the search term(s), you will notice that a new browser window opens up with results. This is not a bug but rather complying with the restrictions set by the journal sites.

Along with the new additions, we have fixed the restriction that forced the user to press the button to initiate the search. Now the search will initiate by either pressing "Enter" or by pressing the "Search" button following entering the search term(s).

Yottalook Images Search Engine Expands Coverage

Yottalook has expanded its journal coverage. When we first began our beta testing of the Yottalook Images search engine (www.yottalook.com) back in mid-December, we initially started out by searching through radiology journals only. We have been gradually increasing the number of radiology journals covered. Since about three weeks ago, we have started to include non-radiology journals as well. However, the algorithm for this is trickier as typically non-radiology journals contain many figures that are not directly relevant to the field of radiology. We decided to test out our new algorithm by searching through The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). We silently rolled out this new addition little less than 2 weeks ago. If you would like to see a demonstration of its implementation, type in "ectopic calcinosis" into our Images search engine.

After we were satisfied with the results we were getting with the NEJM, we have since increased our coverage, including journals like JAMA and Annals of Internal Medicine, among several others. To test out its implementation, go ahead and type in terms like "AIDS brain", "anthrax", and "duodenal gastrinoma". Unfortunately, not all radiological images from these various journals have been indexed by Google as of date. As a result, the search results through these journals are less than complete, but we do provide those radiology-related figures that have been indexed by Google and will provide more as they become available.

Differential Diagnosis and PDF Search

On Friday (1/5/07) we released another set of features for the Yottalook search - differential diagnosis (DDx) and PDF. The DDx option gives user capability to quickly look for differential diagnosis for the term they are searching. For example, if you search for "cystic bone lesion" with DDx checked, you will see results that discuss differential diagnosis for the finding of cystic bone lesion. Similarly you can search for differential diagnosis for a disease entity, such as "IPMT" (intraductal papillary mucinous tumor) you will see results that discuss differential diagnosis for the disease IPMT.

Lot of times I know the article I need and I prefer to look at how it was printed in the publication - i.e., PDF format. But it takes too many steps to find it on the journal websites. For this workflow, we have created the "PDF" option. When checked, the query only returns links directly to the PDF of the articles. If you or your institution subscribes to the journal in the result, you can download and save the PDF with one click.

Both these options discussed above were designed for the reference portion of the search engine. You can do the same query for image section, but you may not see the correct results.

Try these features out and give us feedback. www.Yottalook.com

Yottalook Labs Launched

Today, we launched Yottalook Labs. It is a place where we will be demonstrating various projects we are working on. New innovations are constantly being worked on at iVirtuoso, and we wanted to give the public a sneak preview of some of the projects that are currently in progress. With the launch of Yottalook Labs, we are showing two prototypes: Yottalook Anatomy and Yottametta. These are both interactive prototypes that you can test out and give feedback on.

Yottalook Anatomy is a search engine designed to expedite searching for anatomy related information on the web. Keeping those in the field of radiology in mind, we used an algorithm to give higher relevance to imaging-related anatomy content. Like the other Yottalook search engines, one can refine the results further. For example, you can type in “knee” and then filter by selecting “AP/PA” in the results page and get the labeled anteroposterior view of the knee.

Yottametta is a prototype meta image search engine. Many users have expressed desire to be able to search for images with thumbnail previews. Yottametta offers this type of user interface by utilizing various image search engines already in existence offered by various journal sites. While you will not need subscription to preview the images, some images may require login/subscription for download. For those who want to expand the search results even further, try selecting the “snap” tab.

As each project matures, we will release it on the main Yottalook page. So go ahead and check them out at the Yottalook Labs today by pressing the small “Yottalook Labs” icon on the bottom of the main Yottalook page or by visiting directly at www.yottalook.com/labs.