MedWorm is a medical RSS feed provider as well as a search engine built on data collected from RSS feeds.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a technology used to simply publish and gather details of the very latest information on the internet. You can read more about RSS here.

MedWorm collects updates from over 6,000 authoritative data sources (growing each day) via RSS feeds. From the data collected, MedWorm provides new outgoing RSS feeds on various medical categories that you can subscribe to, via the free MedWorm online service, or another RSS reader of your choice, such as Bloglines, Newsgator, Google Reader or FeedDemon.

The best way to get a feel for the information that MedWorm can provide is to have a browse through the various categories. New categories are being added all the time and we are happy to receive requests for new ones if you can’t find the category of your choice.

Who owns MedWorm?

MedWorm was built and is owned by Frankie Dolan, a UK based IT developer.

Here’s a statement from Frankie:

“I had been using RSS in the technology sector for my own personal use for some time when I began to realise that it could be of great benefit to some members of my family who are doctors. Since medical professionals are constantly in need of the latest information on medical research and the best methods of treatment, and are also usually overworked with little time to spare, RSS seemed ideal since it could provide the very latest information that is both concise and highly relevant to a specific area of expertise.

I set up MedWorm as a way of using my IT skills to give something back to society, having grown somewhat disheartened of making rich people richer working for big corporate companies. I believe that as more physicians, health care workers and those in medical research start to make use of RSS, medicine will see huge leaps forward as the flow of the right information getting to the right people vastly improves. It can also be instrumental in providing patients with the additional information they are rightly hungry for when faced with illness. I am very excited about how MedWorm can contribute to this process.

The MedWorm RSS feeds I handpicked from medical sources and I am adding more each day. If you create a free MedWorm account you will gain access to an RSS feed submission form, although I do first manually check and categorise all feeds before adding. I make sure that all the feeds are from authoritative sources and I try to make sure that I collect RSS feeds first hand from the data providers themselves, rather than filtered versions of the feeds. M\any of the feeds are from medical journals, in addition to key news resources, government organsiations and medical associations. Where online medical journals do not yet have their own feed, I am adding gradually creating and adding feeds via PubMed – my goal is to eventually include feeds for every medical journal that is available online. Medical blogs were added recently, but that data is kept separate from the authoritative feeds. I check any feeds that I am unsure about with a medical professional.

I mostly set up MedWorm on my own, but recently a small team of Worm Associates was formed, who are now providing valuable input into the development of The Worm, and helping to form new Worms in other areas of expertise. I would especially like to thank Adel Abdellaoui for his help in categorising the feeds and providing feedback from a doctor’s point of view. I would also like to thank David Rothman for his unparalleled support in providing feedback, lots of great ideas, recommendations and endless enthusiasm for the project. David works in a medical library based in New York, writes an interesting blog on medical librarianship and technology, and shares a vision of the use of RSS in medicine and throughout the academic world. David and I have recently launched ‘Libworm.com’, which is a librarian’s version of MedWorm, taking feeds from biblioblogs and other librarian resources (David’s great idea). Also in the making are other ‘Worm’ sites that are in the making with new Worm Associates from different areas of expertise.

MedWorm will always remain a free resource, as I believe that medical knowledge should be shared with all. It is not currently making a profit – in fact it is running at a loss, as the ads are not yet covering the cost of the server, so please feel free to support the site by having a look any of the Google ads that maybe of interest to you (of course only please click on a link if your are genuinely interested in it). I am also looking for sponsorship to help with MedWorm expansion (and maybe one day I’ll be able to pay some salaries!) If you are a company looking for exposure in the health sector, please get in touch as I have lots of ideas on how MedWorm could provide some excellent publicity for your business should you decide to support MedWorm.

I welcome any feedback or enquiries. Maybe you would like to get involved in the The Worm Engine project and become a Worm Associate too? If you are interested in RSS, not necessarily in the field of medicine, I would love to share ideas with you. Frankie“

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 7:04 am and is filed under Health, Verticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.