Title of Invention	A SEARCHING SYSYTEM ARRANGED TO SEARCH INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM A SEARCH SPACE AND METHOD THEREFOR
Abstract	The present invention relates to a searching system (1) and method arranged to search information available from one or more data sources (4, 5, 6). The searching system comprises a user interface (2) and a storage means which is arranged to store search templates. The search templates include search profiles which include parameters which are arranged to implement search knowledge to carry out a user input search. Parameters implementing the search knowledge may include the time period of data sources to be searched, the data sources to be used, and key words delimiting the search.

Title of Invention

A SEARCHING SYSYTEM ARRANGED TO SEARCH INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM A SEARCH SPACE AND METHOD THEREFOR

Abstract

The present invention relates to a searching system (1) and method arranged to search information available from one or more data sources (4, 5, 6). The searching system comprises a user interface (2) and a storage means which is arranged to store search templates. The search templates include search profiles which include parameters which are arranged to implement search knowledge to carry out a user input search. Parameters implementing the search knowledge may include the time period of data sources to be searched, the data sources to be used, and key words delimiting the search.

Full Text	A SEARCHING SYSTEM ARRANGED TO SEARCH INFORMATION AVAILABLE FROM A SEARCH SPACE AND METHOD THEREFOR FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a system and method for obtaining information from data sources.and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a searching system and method for obtaining information from a plurality of heterogenous data sources. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Systems for carrying out searches of computing system based data sources are well known. They include search systems which are available to search data sources over networks such as the Internet. They also include search systems arranged to search data sources such as databases which are provided for specialist searching, such as medical databases, which may or may not be available over networks such as the Internet. For many systems, the information available from data sources is vast. In the medical area, for example, the amount of data available to medical professionals is enormous. It is very important that the medical professional be able to properly search this data in order for them to be able to make clinical decisions. One person cannot hope to personally keep up with developments in an area such as medicine and they must therefore rely on access to the available data sources. The search tools provided by any search system need to be adequate to facilitate an accurate and comprehensive search, which is able to be implemented speedily and without an inappropriate amount of effort required of the searcher. Presently available searching systems are not satisfactory in this regard. Present systems usually enable a searcher to input key words, combinations of key words and sometimes to select the aaca sources that are required to be searched. The accuracy and comprehensiveness of any such search depends for the most part on the skill and knowledge of the searcher. They must be able to decide on the appropriate key words to choose for the search, for example. It is plain fact that some people are more skilled in this than others. If they are to select the data sources available for the search, they must have the appropriate knowledge of the best data sources to search. If they haven't, the search will not be accurate or comprehensive. The selection of appropriate search criteria can also be extremely time consuming, particularly where the searcher is not particularly skilled or knowledgable in searching. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with a first aspect, the present invention provides a searching system arranged to search information available from a search space which includes at least one data source, the searching system comprising a user intexia.ce and a storage means arranged to store search templates, the search templates including pre- stored search parameters for controlling the search in accordance with the parameters and wherein a user is able to select a search template via the interface and the searching system is arranged to carry out the search in accordance with the pre-stored search parameters; the search templates including a plurality of user selectable search profiles, each search profile including parameters which are arranged to delimit a search space within the available search space whereby the search will occur within the delimited search space. The provision of a search template (s) effectively enables searching "knowledge" about the most effective way to search to be stored in the system, by way of search parameters. A user then has access to this pre-stored "knowledge" to facilitate their search. For example, a template may have been previously prepared and stored by a user or system administrator having particular knowledge of a particular search area. This knowledge can be subsequently applied to carry out future searches. The skills, time and effort required of a novice user is therefore greatly reduced. If they wish to carry out a particular search, the user can look for an appropriate template, via the interface, for carrying out the search they have in mind, and select the template. It is not necessary for the user to define the parameters for every search, they can use the pre-stored template. Preferably, the interface is arranged to enable new search templates to be prepared and added to the system, essentially providing a '"library" of search templates. Preferably, new templates can be added by users of the system and preferably, the system is arranged so that templates prepared by different users can be shared between users. Templates may also be prepared by users or system administrators who are specialised searchers. The search templates include "search profiles" which include search parameters. These parameters may include the period of the search (what time period of data sources is to be searched), data sources to be used in the search, specific ways in which the query must be expressed for any particular data source including selection of a keyword expression language understood by the data source, the time that the system is to take to carry out the search, and how the results of the search are to be presented. The search profile may also include predetermined keywords that operate to focus the search. The search profile parameters preferably specify how a search query must be expressed for each data source. Preferably, the search profiles are arranged to encapsulate the nature of the search inquiry. One of the parameters preferably includes the subject matter of the search inquiry. For example, where the system is arranged to search within the medical domain the search profile may reflect the nature of the clinical inquiry e.g. "treatment" may search the database from the aspect of a "treatment" approach. The subject matter that is searched by the "treatment" profile will preferably include data sources which are relevant to treatment or have a treatment bias. Further, the time period which is searched may be governed by the nature of search inquiry eg. If the subject matter of the search may determine that the search period be limited to a particular period in history, the profile will be so limited. Further, tne profile may include key words limiting the search to reflect the nature of the clinical enquiry. For example, for a "diagnosis" profile, appropriate key words may be used in the search profile eg "diagnosis". Preferably, the system enables a user to enter key words (additional to those that may be provided with the profile). Preferably, the system is arranged to categorise key words and to utilise key words in the search in dependence on the categorisation. In one embodiment, a plurality of predefined fields are provided for entry of the key words, each of the fields defining a particular category. The searching system may assign different importance to key words depending upon the category. In one embodiment, the manner of the search applied by the category will depend upon the profile selected. Profiles may be organised hierarchically. Such hierarchically organised profiles may include "parent" and "child" profiles. The child profile may provide a more "focused" search within a narrow area within the ambit of the parent profile. Preferably, the system interface enables the user to view the profiles within their hierarchy to enable selection of an appropriate profile for a search enquiry. The search templates preferably further include "Saved Searches", preferably including a plurality of key words for use by the searching system in carrying out the search. Keywords can may be arranged according to a predefined expression language, such as Boolean logical operators. Provision of this facility enables the user to proceed with a search without having to go to the time and trouble of selecting key words, or arranging them into the most appropriate expression using a predefined language like Boolean logic. Small alternations in keywords or keyword expressions provided to search systems can result in substantial variation in search success, and the use of expert provided keyword sets for typical search topics enables novice searchers to use keywords preselected for their suitability to a specific type of search. Preferably, the searching system is arranged to present the results of any search to a user via the interface. Preferably, the search templates also operate to provide control parameters to control the way in which the results of the search are presented to the user. Preferably, the searching system is arranged to enable users to amend search templates. Preferably, the interface also includes a means whereby a user may carry out a standard search in a convent ional manner. Preferably, the searching system is arranged to carry out searches over a plurality of data sources. Preferably, the system may be arranged so that each data source or sources may be searched more than once for a particular search enquiry, either by parallel multiple searches or consecutively. Preferably, where the same data source or sources are searched more than once, each of the searches can have a different ratio between selectivity and specificity. This enables multiple searches with different coverages and approaches to be carried out without any extra input from the user. In accordance with a second aspect, the present invention provides, in a searching system which is arranged to search information available from a search space which includes at least one data source, a method of controlling the searching system by providing a search template including pre-stored search parameters for controlling the search in accordance with the parameters, the search templates including a plurality of user selectable search profiles, each search profile including parameters which are arranged to delimit a search space within the available search space whereby the search will occur within the delimited search space. In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer, program arranaed. when loaded on a computing_system. to. control the computing system to provide a searching system in accordance with the first aspect of the present. invention In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present ^invention, there is provided a computer readable medium providing a computer..program-in accordance with- the ,third aspect of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic diagram demonstrating a system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention: Figure 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an architecture of the system of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of the system of Figure 1; Figures 4 through 9 are diagrams representing "screens" for illustrating operation of the system of Figure 1; Figure 10 is a diagram representing a screen display illustrating an aspect of operation of a further embodiment of the present invention; Figure 11 is a diagram of an example display for illustrating another aspect of operation of the embodiment of figure 10; and Figure 12 is a diagram of an example display of search results for an example search. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Figure 1 illustrates a searching system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, that comprises a computing system 1 implementing the searching system, and providing a user interface to user terminals ~T7 The user terminals 2 may comprise any appropriate computing apparatus, and in this case are illustrated as being conventional PC's which may be linked to the computing system 1 by any appropriate link or network, and in this example the link is via the Internet. The computing system 1 may also be implemented by any appropriate computing apparatus, and in this example is implemented as a server which is capaole of providing web pages to Trser-~fea?©w»«sS"-ieaded on user terminals 2, in a Tcnbwn manner. The computing system 1 has access to data sources 3, 4, 5, 6, containing data which is able to be searched by the system 1. In this,example, a local data source 3 is illustrated which is connected to the computing system 1 and which may comprise a conventional data base, and also sources 4, 5, 6 which are accessible over a network such as the Internet. Local or remote data sources are shown by way of example only and it will be appreciated that all data sources may be remote or all may be local, or as illustrated in Figure 1, there may be a mixture of both types of data sources available to the system 1. The system of the present invention may be capable of accessing and searching any available data source. In this example embodiment, however, the data sources store medical information, and the searching system is arranged to facilitate clinical searches that may be undertaken by medical professionals. It will be appreciated, however, that the system of the present invention may be applied to any subject matter field and any data sources, and is not limited to the domain of medicine. Referring to figure 2, the broad architecture of the system 1 comprises a user interface 10 which enables the user to access the searching system and which in this example comprises a web based interface provided by computing system 1 and browsers on the client systems 2. The system also includes means for storing search templates, which include pre-stored search parameters for controlling the search in accordance with the parameters, and which in this example include "searches" 11 and "profiles" 12. Each of the searches 11 includes one or more key words which have been pre-stored for particular types of searches which the user may wish to carry out, and the profiles include other parameters such as the dates of publications which the search may be limited to, the selection of the databases to be searched, other keywords which may facilitate limitations to a particular "profile", and other parameters as will become more clear from the following detailed description. -' The system architecture also includes a profile manager 13 for managing the profiles, and a search engine 14 for implementing the search in accordance with the search templates to search the database data sources 15. Operation of the system will now be described with reference to figures 3 through 10. Note that in some of the drawings which represent example screen shots, trademarks are used ("Quick Clinical"). It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited by any of this trademark matter. Figure 4 represents a screen presented to a user system 2 via the interface 10 from which a user will enter instructions to carry out a search following "Start" (reference numeral 20, figure 3) system. This screen includes a profile window 100 to enable a' user to select search profiles 12 and an advanced search window 101 which enables a user to select searches 11. The page also includes commands 102 which can be selected for other operations which are typical of Internet based systems, such as, for example, "Logout". In this medical based system, correct selection of the profile 12 is very important for accurate and clinically valid searches. Selection of profile 12 is via a drop down list arrangement as illustrated at reference numeral 104 in figure 5. Note in figure 5 that the search has changed to a "Simple Search" 103. Figure 4 illustrates at 101 the "Advanced Search" option. Simple"Search and Advanced Search are discussed further in the following. The pre-stored search profiles 12 are named for ease of reference as is shown in the drop down list 104. They are also organised hierarchically. For example, search profile "Treatment" is a "leading" search profile which will cause the searching system to look into data sources which contain information relevant to treatment rather than to diagnosis, aetiology or patient education, for example. The daughter search profiles of "Treatment", shown here as "Pharmacological", "Preventative" and "Surgical" will look into.to treatment into these particular areas. There may be any number of levels of hierarchy, as will be appreciated. Any profile includes a number of parameters, which delimit the search according to the parameters. Profiles may be edited and new profiles may be created, via profile manager 13 (reference numerals 22 and 23 of figure 3, respectively). Figure 6 is an illustration of a screen displayed to a user who wishes to add or amend a profile. In this embodiment, any profile has the following attributes: • A profile ID 105 • Date to search articles from 106 • Date to search articles to 107 • How to sort or rank articles (eg. by date, by title, by author, by journal-name etc) 108 • Data sources to be searched by the search 109 • The search duration 110 • The search subject (for now this simply gets appended to search keywords) 111. • The hierarchy of the profile (denoted by the profile id of this profiles immediate parent) 200. It will be appreciated that other embodiments may- include other parameters that may be defined by a search profile. A major advantage of utilising profiles is that the users "knowledge" of a particular area to be searched can effectively be stored in the system to be reused again by the user and other users. Preferably, search profiles may be available to a number of users eg. medical professionals. Users may update or amend or add new profiles utilising their particular knowledge of an area. Over time, therefore, the system increases its knowledge base. Searching becomes quicker and more accurate. The search profile reflects the nature of the search enquiry. This embodiment, the search profile reflects £he nature of the clinical enquiry. The search profile therefore provides a "focussing" of the search. The search profile may include search keywords to define the profile. It may be facilitated by search key words which are selected or entered by a user when carrying out a search. If the user selects a profile name, the corresponding profile characteristics are fetched and displayed in a similar manner to the display of figure 6. The profile parameter values may be changed. A change in the profiles name (ID), however, has a special significance. If the name 105 is not change, then the profiles characteristics simply get updated. If the name, however, is changed, the profile is considered a new profile and it is saved as a immediate child of the profile initially displayed. If users wish to change the profile name, they may do so by clicking on the "Rename" button (not shown but present in the table that displays the profile characteristics of another existing profile - it is merely the display of figure 6 with the addition of the "Rename" button). In this case, none of the other profile characteristics will change. This is done to separate the functionality of renaming a profile from simply changing the profile details. At all times, if the profile name is left blank or with a default descriptive phrase, the new profile becomes temporary and is saved as '"Current Profile" in a corresponding hierarchy level. Once a profile has been selected (reference numerals 22, 23, 24 of figure 3) either by creating a new profile or choosing an already existing profile, then a "Search" needs to be selected. The system provides the option of a "Simple Search" (reference numeral 25 of figure 3) or a *Advanced Search" (reference numeral 26 of figure 3) . If a Simple Search is selected (reference numeral 103, figure 5), the user merely enters key words that are appropriate for the search. If the option of "Advanced Search" is chosen (see figure 7), the user has two alternatives. In the first alternative, the user may create a new Advanced Search (reference numerals 27 and 28 of figure 3) via the Search Manager 16. Figure 7 illustrates an example screen presented to the user for Advanced Search. The user enters key words in field 210. The key words may be words or phrases with AND OR NOT qualifiers. By typing a word or phrase in the "but not" 211 window, the search will exclude all sources containing this word or phrase. The user may choose to save their Advanced Search for future use by typing a name characteristic for this search in the "Save As" 212 window and clicking on the Save 213 button. The search is then saved for future use by the user and other users. Saving searches as a template adds further to the "Knowledge" of the system. Saved Searches can be created by users, shared between users and edited in a similar manner to Profiles. The alternative option than a user creating their own Advanced Search, is for a user to select a pre-stored Advanced Search template (reference numeral 2 9 of figure 3). Figure 8 illustrates the drop down list for the saved searches. The drop down list 114 includes names of all the saved searches that have been saved. Clicking on a name eg. asthma search 215 selects that search and also gives a list of the key words 116 which the search includes. Once the search has been selected (27, 28, 2 9 of figure 3) the user may initiate the search (reference numeral 30 figure 3) by pressing the "Go" button 115. The search engine 14 then initiates the search based on the instructions from the search profile and the Search selected. The search engine 14 searches the data sources 15 and provides, in this embodiment, an XML document back to the system. The XML document is parsed and the results are displayed by the interface 10 in a user friendly manner. Figure 9 illustrates an example display'^of search results. The layout of the display is effected by the selection of the original Search and Profile. At the very top of the display 116 a summary of the search is presented, which shows the data sources which were used and also names the search. The search results are then listed in accordance with the "ranking" stated in the profile in a list further down screen 117. Documents coming from different sources are grouped together to represent main categories such as guidelines, journals and text books. Numbers in brackets represent the amount of documents found in each category. The user may view the list of retrieved documents by moving the scroll bar 118 up and down. By clicking on any of the underlined text "More Information" the user may view the details of the retrieved document. Further information could include various levels of detail such as an abstract or a link to a full document. Figure 10 illustrates an example display of a further embodiment of the present invention which does not include an option for "Advanced Search" or "Simple Search". In this Profile Manager embodiment a saved search 50 can be selected or alternatively key words can be entered via a plurality of fields 51 which can be defined and arranged to provide a categorisation for each of the key words to be entered. In the example illustrated, key words may be entered in the categories "Disease", "Drug ", Symptoms" and "Others". The profile manager 13 may assign different importance or treat the key words in each category differently depending upon the profile that has been selected. For example, "A Disease " category key word is more important in "Diagnosis" profile and a "Drug" key word is more important in the "Prescribing" profile. The search can be affected by the category assigned to key words, as well as the profile. A further facility of this further embodiment of the invention is the facility to search a data source more . than once for each search inquiry. Referring to Figure 11, this embodiment offers' "match 1" "match 2" 53 searches for the same search enquiry. Match 1 and Match 2 apply different searching approaches as regards selectivity and specificity. For example, the first search "match 1" of the data source can be specified as extremely narrow and have high priority in the "mix" of results, e.g. by using all key words that have been typed in by the searcher and by searching in "titles", and "abstracts" only. The second search "match 2" can vary the ratio between selectivity and specificity , appropriate for the size and clinical importance of the source. Although this embodiment shows two different types of searches to be applied to the source, it will be appreciated that further searches having varied ratios between selectivity and specificity can be incorporated. For the same search inquiry, therefore, several searches having different approaches to the same data source can be carried out. The above embodiment has been specifically designed for use for medical professional for searching databases for clinical knowledge..._._, It will be appreciated that the system of the present invention can be used to search any data source and is not limited to data sources containing medical knowledge. The above embodiment is arranged to search data sources over a network such as the Internet. It will be appreciated that the present invention is not limited to a system which searches data sources over the Internet. Other embodiments may search databases locally to a computing system, may search over a network that is not the Internet, or may do a mixture of both. In the above embodiment, search templates are separated into Search Profiles and Searches. It will be appreciated that a search template may be organised in different ways to this. As discussed above, search profiles are'ynot limited by the parameters which have been listed in the above embodiment. Many other search parameters are possible for profiles. For example, a search profile may specify the order in which the results from different sources are presented by the user interface (eg. source 1, then source 2, then source 3) whether they are intermingled according to a defined ranking criterio. Also the number of results to be reported back from a source can be specified. Further, a profile may specify which elements of a result are displayed eg. for an article title, author, journal, elements, abstract or elements abstracted from text, and links to that article. These are all different sub components of the document, which the searching system may recognise from a predefined structure according to the stored document model, for example in XML which recognises either tags in the retrieved document or searches for key words which identify the specific document component. A profile may also indicate whether the sources are to be "linked". For example, a CD-Rom version of a text book can be stored locally and be fast to access, and a Web version might be more up to date, but slower. A profile may define that the two sources are linked and integrate their results so that they speak with "one voice" to the user. Further, some data sources may understand special commands eg. the MEDLINE™ system recognises defined words from MESH, and combines keywords in its own standard expression language and the profile could define specific use of key words for different sources. Note that, as discussed above profiles may have their own associated key words (preferably arranged into the most appropriate expressions) which will be used at all times with the search. Other attributes that a profile may have include the following: for each data source; number of results to retrieve from this source; weight (ie. Contribution from this source to mix) maximum search time; priority of the source in the mix; lexical variant generation capability on/off. The system may include a dictionary of words which may be selected from by the user as key words, in order to assist the user. Another option for profiles is that they could include some parameters that are permanently fixed and cannot be edited by users. For example, it may be desirable to ensure that a particular profile for searching anatomy is always searches "Grays Anatomy" and the Search Profile may be fixed so that this text is always searched. Other aspects of the profile could be amended. On the other hand, the profile could include a parameter which specifies that a particular source is not to be searched. As discussed above, search templates (including profiles and searches )can be shared between users. This can be done in any number of ways. For example, all new templates may be stored centrally by the system and shared by all, or stored centrally and only available to the user who created it, or available to a certain group (much like a bulletin board with a subscriber model). Alternatively, new templates may be stored locally on the user's system and only used by the creator. A further alternative is that all new templates may be stored centrally but down loaded to a local computer to be added to its library, so that there may be a separate template library to the core templates normally available - users browse the library to add more templates to their system to suit their particular needs. There are also other options for sharing templates. The searching system of the present invention, it will be appreciated, may be implemented by any software/hardware arrangement that implements the functions described above. It will be appreciated from the above description the present invention is concerned with the user interface and the provision of search queries for searching multiple databases (the "front end")- The actual search engine (the "back end") which implements the search queries formulated in accordance with the present invention, is not part of the present invention. Any appropriate search engine which can search the data source may be utilised to search in accordance with the search template. The following two examples illustrate aspects of the embodiment of the present invention. One example relates to searching of clinical databases. The other example relates to searching of legal databases, in order to illustrate that the system can be applied across any subject matter. Example 1: The user may choose one of many available profiles, each of which has the capacity to modify the search query without user intervention. Table 1. Detailed design of the profile "Diagnosis". #1#, #2#, #3#, #4# indicate the content typed by the users as keywords. TABLE 1 There are three ways in which the profile reflects the nature of the search. by adding additional search words to the search query by restricting the search space within the selected source by allowing to perform search only on sources which are most relevant to the nature of the medical enquiry The example above shows the profile "diagnosis". Additional words such as "diagnosis" or 'signs and symptoms" are being included in the search query without user intervention. The search space restriction is illustrated by using words such as " Practice Guidelines - English - lOyears Human" applied to the PubMed source, once again transparent to the user. Only four out of 8 sources are used in the profile "Diagnosis" because only these sources contain^ information most relevant to the medical enquiries in the area of differential diagnosis. The Keywords. The properly defined search query requires that the user makes a choice of the search profile and types at least one keyword. However user may attempt to make much more complex search using many keywords at the same time. The user interface allows to streamline this process of entering the keywords by. Providing multiple entry fields with descriptors Providing "Builder" functionality which assists in making more complex Boolean logic enquiries. Categorisation of the keywords. A unique feature of the user interface is the categorization of keywords The above example indicates that different keywords can be entered in separate entry fields according to their meaning. Disease names are expected to by entered in the field with the "disease" descriptor or drug names to be entered in the field with the "drug" descriptor. This unique approach allows the system to "know" the category to which each keyword belongs. That knowledge is use in the profile engineering to assign different importance to keyword categories (eg. keyword entered as "disease" is of primary importance in the "Diagnosis" and "Treatment" profile but the drug name is most important in "Drug info" profile) Multiple search in, the same source. The information contained in any specific source is usually structured according to certain pre-defined rules. For example textbooks are structured as sections, chapters, sub-chapters, paragraphs. Other sources such as PubMed may use purpose-build lists of key terms such as MeSH to promote the better search techniques. The system allows to explore such pre-defined structure of the data source by conducting multiple searches on the same source with various level of specificity and precision. An example of this would be to search for the main keyword first in the titles, then in the abstract or summary, and then in the main body of the text. The results are then checked for duplicates and displayed together in the pre-defined order. Table 2 above illustrates this approach with two sources, allowing for two searches in each source in response to the single user enquiry. Theoretically there is no limit on the amount of multiple searches conducted on one source. Search results. The results obtained in response to the search query are grouped according to a certain criteria. The examples of the categories are : Journals, Textbooks and Guidelines. (ref numeral 300, Fig 12) . New categories can be created in future as well as the new functionality to performed the secondary searches (on previously retrieved results) The user may choose to read abstract of the selected PubMed article or full text info retrieved from the other sources as illustrated in Figure 12. Example 2 Similar search capacity as employed in the medical field of knowledge can be used in the field of legal enquiries. The capacity of using multiple sources and multiple entry fields would be most suitable for complex, multi-indexed data sources. One of the hypothetical examples can be illustrated as follows: Examples of hypothetical search profiles may include : Criminal, Family, Fraud and Legislation. Esentially any well defined type of legal enquiry can became a pre- defined search profile. Modifications and variations as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed to be within the scope of the present invention. WE CLAIM : 1. A searching system arranged to search information available from a search space which comprises at least one data source, the searching system comprising a user interface, a storage means, a plurality of search templates stored by storage means, each stored search template comprising one or more search parameters, wherein the user interface is arranged to enable a user to select a search template, wherein the searching system is arranged to carry out a search as claimed in the pre- stored search parameters, and wherein the search templates comprise a plurality of user selectable search profiles, each search profile comprising one or more parameters for applying search knowledge to a search specified by a used whereby) the user specified search is implemented by the searching system as claimed in the) search knowledge./ 2. A searching system as claimed in claim 1, the interface comprising means enabling new search templates to be added to the system by users. 3. A searching system as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, the system being arranged so that search templates may be accessed by a plurality of users. 4. A searching system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the search templates comprise templates arranged to store searches comprising a plurality of key words for use by the searching system in carrying out the search whereby, in operation, a user may select a template stored search as the user specified search. 5. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising search entry means enabling the user to enter search data to enable a search to be carried out, whereby, in operation, the search data comprises the user specified search. 6. A searching system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the search data comprises key words. 7. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profiles comprise pre-stored search parameters which are arranged to direct the search as claimed in the nature of the search enquiry. 8. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profiles comprise a plurality of pre-stored search parameters for applying the search knowledge. 9. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profiles are programmable whereby to enable adjustment of the search parameters. 10. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profile parameters include keywords or keyword expressions. 11. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profiles parameters specify a time period of data sources to be searched. 12. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profile parameters include a time that the system is to take to carry out the search. 13. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profile parameters specify how a search query must be expressed for the data source, and the search profile operates to generate a search query, utilising the user specified search, that is in the appropriate expression form. 14. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profile comprise parameters instructing how search results are presented. 15. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising interface means enabling the user to enter key words into one of a plurality of predetermined categories. 16. A searching system as claimed in claim 15, the searching system being arranged to utilise the key words in dependence on their categorisation. 17. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profile comprises parameters instructing searching of a data source a plurality of times for a single user specified search. 18. A searching system as claimed in claim 17, wherein each one of the plurality of searches of the same data source is arranged to have different selectivity and specificity of the source. 19. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search profile comprises one or more parameters arranged to adjust the user specified search to search the search space in the most appropriate way according to the nature of the search. 20. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search space comprises a plurality of data sources, and the search profile comprises one or more parameters which govern selection from one or more of the data sources for implementation of the search. 21. A searching system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the plurality of data sources comprise heterogenous data sources. 22. A system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the search profiles comprise one or more parameters arranged to adjust the user specified search so that the search is carried out appropriately for the data source being searched. 23. A system as claimed in claim 22, wherein the search profile is arranged to implement the search across a plurality of the data sources, and for each of the data sources a search profile comprises parameters for implementing the search in the most appropriate way for the particular data source. 24. A system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the search profile is arranged to implement the search by generating a plurality of search queries utilizing the search, one for each of the plurality of data sources being searched. 25. In a searching system which is arranged to search information available from a space which comprises at least one data source, a method of searching comprising the steps of receiving a user specified search, and applying a user selected search template to implement the search as claimed in search knowledge, the user selected search template comprising a search profile comprising one or more parameters for applying the search knowledge to the search specified by the user. 26. A method as claimed in claim 24, wherein the search profiles are programmable and the method comprises the step of a user adjusting the search parameters of a search profile. 27. A method as claimed in claim 25 or claim 26, wherein the search profile comprises pre-stored search parameters which are arranged to direct the search as claimed in the nature of the search enquiry. 28. A method as claimed in claims 25, 26 or 27, wherein the search profile comprises a plurality of pre-stored searchparameters for applying the search knowledge. 29. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 28, wherein the search profile is programmable to enable adjustment of the search parameters. 30. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 29, wherein the search profile parameters include keywords or keyword expressions. 31. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 30, wherein the search profile parameters specify a time period of data sources to be searched. 32. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 31, wherein the search profile parameters include a time that the system is to take to carry out the search. 33. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 32, wherein the search profile parameters specify how a search query must be expressed for the data source, and the search profile operates to generate a search query, utilizing the user specified search, that is in an appropriate expression form. 34. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 33, wherein the search profile comprises parameters instructing how search results are presented. 35. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 34, wherein the search profile comprises parameters instructing searching of a data source a plurality of times for a single user specified search. 36. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 35, wherein each one of the plurality of searches of the same data source is arranged to have different selectivity and specificity of the source. 37. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 36, wherein the search profile comprises one or more parameters arranged to adjust the user specified search to search the search space in the most appropriate way according to the nature of the search. 38. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 37, wherein the search space influence a plurality of data sources, and the search profile comprises one or more parameters which govern selection from one ore more of the data sources for implementation of the search. 39. A method as claimed in claim 38, wherein the plurality of data sources comprise heterogeneous data sources. 40. A method as claimed in claim 39, wherein the search profile includes one or more parameters arranged to adjust the user specified search so that the search is carried out appropriately for the data source being searched. 41. A method as claimed in claim 38, wherein the search profile is arranged to implement the search across a plurality of the data sources, and for each of the data sources, the search profile includes parameters for implementing the search in the most appropriate way for the particular data source. 42. A method as claimed in claim 41, wherein the search profile is arranged to implement the search by generating a plurality of search queries utilizing the search, one for each of a plurality of data sources. 43. A searching system as claimed in any one of claims I to 24, the system being arranged to enable search profiles to be shared and accessed by multiple users. 44. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 42, comprising the step of sharing search profiles among multiple users. The present invention relates to a searching system (1) and method arranged to search information available from one or more data sources (4, 5, 6). The searching system comprises a user interface (2) and a storage means which is arranged to store search templates. The search templates include search profiles which include parameters which are arranged to implement search knowledge to carry out a user input search. Parameters implementing the search knowledge may include the time period of data sources to be searched, the data sources to be used, and key words delimiting the search.

Full Text

A SEARCHING SYSTEM ARRANGED TO SEARCH INFORMATION
AVAILABLE FROM A SEARCH SPACE AND METHOD THEREFOR
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and method
for obtaining information from data sources.and, more
particularly, but not exclusively, to a searching system
and method for obtaining information from a plurality of
heterogenous data sources.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Systems for carrying out searches of computing system
based data sources are well known. They include search
systems which are available to search data sources over
networks such as the Internet. They also include search
systems arranged to search data sources such as databases
which are provided for specialist searching, such as
medical databases, which may or may not be available over
networks such as the Internet.
For many systems, the information available from
data sources is vast. In the medical area, for example,
the amount of data available to medical professionals is
enormous. It is very important that the medical
professional be able to properly search this data in order
for them to be able to make clinical decisions. One
person cannot hope to personally keep up with developments
in an area such as medicine and they must therefore rely
on access to the available data sources. The search tools
provided by any search system need to be adequate to
facilitate an accurate and comprehensive search, which is
able to be implemented speedily and without an
inappropriate amount of effort required of the searcher.
Presently available searching systems are not satisfactory
in this regard. Present systems usually enable a searcher
to input key words, combinations of key words and
sometimes to select the aaca sources that are required to

be searched. The accuracy and comprehensiveness of any
such search depends for the most part on the skill and
knowledge of the searcher. They must be able to decide on
the appropriate key words to choose for the search, for
example. It is plain fact that some people are more
skilled in this than others. If they are to select the
data sources available for the search, they must have the
appropriate knowledge of the best data sources to search.
If they haven't, the search will not be accurate or
comprehensive. The selection of appropriate search
criteria can also be extremely time consuming,
particularly where the searcher is not particularly
skilled or knowledgable in searching.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with a first aspect, the present
invention provides a searching system arranged to search
information available from a search space which includes
at least one data source, the searching system comprising
a user intexia.ce and a storage means arranged to store
search templates, the search templates including pre-
stored search parameters for controlling the search in
accordance with the parameters and wherein a user is able
to select a search template via the interface and the
searching system is arranged to carry out the search in
accordance with the pre-stored search parameters;
the search templates including a plurality of user
selectable search profiles, each search profile including
parameters which are arranged to delimit a search space
within the available search space whereby the search will
occur within the delimited search space.
The provision of a search template (s) effectively
enables searching "knowledge" about the most effective way
to search to be stored in the system, by way of search
parameters. A user then has access to this pre-stored
"knowledge" to facilitate their search. For example, a
template may have been previously prepared and stored by a

user or system administrator having particular knowledge
of a particular search area. This knowledge can be
subsequently applied to carry out future searches. The
skills, time and effort required of a novice user is
therefore greatly reduced. If they wish to carry out a
particular search, the user can look for an appropriate
template, via the interface, for carrying out the search
they have in mind, and select the template. It is not
necessary for the user to define the parameters for every
search, they can use the pre-stored template.
Preferably, the interface is arranged to enable new
search templates to be prepared and added to the system,
essentially providing a '"library" of search templates.
Preferably, new templates can be added by users of the
system and preferably, the system is arranged so that
templates prepared by different users can be shared
between users.
Templates may also be prepared by users or system
administrators who are specialised searchers.
The search templates include "search profiles" which
include search parameters. These parameters may include
the period of the search (what time period of data sources
is to be searched), data sources to be used in the search,
specific ways in which the query must be expressed for any
particular data source including selection of a keyword
expression language understood by the data source, the
time that the system is to take to carry out the search,
and how the results of the search are to be presented.
The search profile may also include predetermined keywords
that operate to focus the search.
The search profile parameters preferably specify how
a search query must be expressed for each data source.
Preferably, the search profiles are arranged to
encapsulate the nature of the search inquiry. One of the
parameters preferably includes the subject matter of the
search inquiry. For example, where the system is arranged
to search within the medical domain the search profile may

reflect the nature of the clinical inquiry e.g.
"treatment" may search the database from the aspect of a
"treatment" approach. The subject matter that is searched
by the "treatment" profile will preferably include data

sources which are relevant to treatment or have a
treatment bias. Further, the time period which is
searched may be governed by the nature of search inquiry
eg. If the subject matter of the search may determine that
the search period be limited to a particular period in
history, the profile will be so limited.
Further, tne profile may include key words limiting
the search to reflect the nature of the clinical enquiry.
For example, for a "diagnosis" profile, appropriate key
words may be used in the search profile eg "diagnosis".
Preferably, the system enables a user to enter key
words (additional to those that may be provided with the
profile).
Preferably, the system is arranged to categorise key
words and to utilise key words in the search in dependence
on the categorisation. In one embodiment, a plurality of
predefined fields are provided for entry of the key words,
each of the fields defining a particular category. The
searching system may assign different importance to key
words depending upon the category. In one embodiment, the
manner of the search applied by the category will depend
upon the profile selected.
Profiles may be organised hierarchically. Such
hierarchically organised profiles may include "parent" and
"child" profiles. The child profile may provide a more
"focused" search within a narrow area within the ambit of
the parent profile. Preferably, the system interface
enables the user to view the profiles within their
hierarchy to enable selection of an appropriate profile
for a search enquiry.
The search templates preferably further include
"Saved Searches", preferably including a plurality of key
words for use by the searching system in carrying out the
search. Keywords can may be arranged according to a
predefined expression language, such as Boolean logical
operators. Provision of this facility enables the user to
proceed with a search without having to go to the time and

trouble of selecting key words, or arranging them into the
most appropriate expression using a predefined language
like Boolean logic. Small alternations in keywords or
keyword expressions provided to search systems can result
in substantial variation in search success, and the use of
expert provided keyword sets for typical search topics
enables novice searchers to use keywords preselected for
their suitability to a specific type of search.
Preferably, the searching system is arranged to
present the results of any search to a user via the
interface.
Preferably, the search templates also operate to
provide control parameters to control the way in which the
results of the search are presented to the user.
Preferably, the searching system is arranged to
enable users to amend search templates.
Preferably, the interface also includes a means
whereby a user may carry out a standard search in a
convent ional manner.
Preferably, the searching system is arranged to
carry out searches over a plurality of data sources.
Preferably, the system may be arranged so that each data
source or sources may be searched more than once for a
particular search enquiry, either by parallel multiple
searches or consecutively. Preferably, where the same
data source or sources are searched more than once, each
of the searches can have a different ratio between
selectivity and specificity.
This enables multiple searches with different
coverages and approaches to be carried out without any
extra input from the user.
In accordance with a second aspect, the present
invention provides, in a searching system which is
arranged to search information available from a search
space which includes at least one data source, a method of
controlling the searching system by providing a search
template including pre-stored search parameters for

controlling the search in accordance with the parameters,
the search templates including a plurality of user
selectable search profiles, each search profile including
parameters which are arranged to delimit a search space
within the available search space whereby the search will
occur within the delimited search space.

In accordance with a third aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a computer, program arranaed.
when loaded on a computing_system. to. control the
computing system to provide a searching system in
accordance with the first aspect of the present. invention
In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present
^invention, there is provided a computer readable medium
providing a computer..program-in accordance with- the ,third
aspect of the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a schematic diagram demonstrating a
system in accordance with an embodiment of the present
invention:
Figure 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an
architecture of the system of Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of
the system of Figure 1;
Figures 4 through 9 are diagrams representing
"screens" for illustrating operation of the system of
Figure 1;
Figure 10 is a diagram representing a screen display
illustrating an aspect of operation of a further
embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 11 is a diagram of an example display for
illustrating another aspect of operation of the embodiment
of figure 10; and
Figure 12 is a diagram of an example display of
search results for an example search.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Figure 1 illustrates a searching system in accordance
with an embodiment of the present invention, that

comprises a computing system 1 implementing the searching
system, and providing a user interface to user terminals
~T7 The user terminals 2 may comprise any appropriate
computing apparatus, and in this case are illustrated as
being conventional PC's which may be linked to the
computing system 1 by any appropriate link or network, and
in this example the link is via the Internet.
The computing system 1 may also be implemented by any
appropriate computing apparatus, and in this example is
implemented as a server which is capaole of providing web
pages to Trser-~fea?©w»«sS"-ieaded on user terminals 2, in a
Tcnbwn manner.
The computing system 1 has access to data sources 3,
4, 5, 6, containing data which is able to be searched by
the system 1. In this,example, a local data source 3 is
illustrated which is connected to the computing system 1
and which may comprise a conventional data base, and also
sources 4, 5, 6 which are accessible over a network such
as the Internet. Local or remote data sources are shown
by way of example only and it will be appreciated that all
data sources may be remote or all may be local, or as
illustrated in Figure 1, there may be a mixture of both
types of data sources available to the system 1.
The system of the present invention may be capable of
accessing and searching any available data source. In
this example embodiment, however, the data sources store
medical information, and the searching system is arranged
to facilitate clinical searches that may be undertaken by
medical professionals. It will be appreciated, however,
that the system of the present invention may be applied to
any subject matter field and any data sources, and is not
limited to the domain of medicine.
Referring to figure 2, the broad architecture of the
system 1 comprises a user interface 10 which enables the
user to access the searching system and which in this
example comprises a web based interface provided by
computing system 1 and browsers on the client systems 2.

The system also includes means for storing search
templates, which include pre-stored search parameters for
controlling the search in accordance with the parameters,
and which in this example include "searches" 11 and
"profiles" 12. Each of the searches 11 includes one or
more key words which have been pre-stored for particular
types of searches which the user may wish to carry out,
and the profiles include other parameters such as the
dates of publications which the search may be limited to,
the selection of the databases to be searched, other
keywords which may facilitate limitations to a particular
"profile", and other parameters as will become more clear
from the following detailed description. -'
The system architecture also includes a profile
manager 13 for managing the profiles, and a search engine
14 for implementing the search in accordance with the
search templates to search the database data sources 15.
Operation of the system will now be described with
reference to figures 3 through 10.
Note that in some of the drawings which represent
example screen shots, trademarks are used ("Quick
Clinical"). It will be appreciated that the invention is
not limited by any of this trademark matter.
Figure 4 represents a screen presented to a user
system 2 via the interface 10 from which a user will enter
instructions to carry out a search following "Start"
(reference numeral 20, figure 3) system. This screen
includes a profile window 100 to enable a' user to select
search profiles 12 and an advanced search window 101 which
enables a user to select searches 11. The page also
includes commands 102 which can be selected for other
operations which are typical of Internet based systems,
such as, for example, "Logout".
In this medical based system, correct selection of
the profile 12 is very important for accurate and
clinically valid searches.
Selection of profile 12 is via a drop down list

arrangement as illustrated at reference numeral 104 in
figure 5. Note in figure 5 that the search has changed to
a "Simple Search" 103. Figure 4 illustrates at 101 the
"Advanced Search" option. Simple"Search and Advanced
Search are discussed further in the following.
The pre-stored search profiles 12 are named for ease
of reference as is shown in the drop down list 104. They
are also organised hierarchically. For example, search
profile "Treatment" is a "leading" search profile which
will cause the searching system to look into data sources
which contain information relevant to treatment rather
than to diagnosis, aetiology or patient education, for
example. The daughter search profiles of "Treatment",
shown here as "Pharmacological", "Preventative" and
"Surgical" will look into.to treatment into these
particular areas. There may be any number of levels of
hierarchy, as will be appreciated.
Any profile includes a number of parameters, which
delimit the search according to the parameters. Profiles
may be edited and new profiles may be created, via profile
manager 13 (reference numerals 22 and 23 of figure 3,
respectively). Figure 6 is an illustration of a screen
displayed to a user who wishes to add or amend a profile.
In this embodiment, any profile has the following
attributes:
• A profile ID 105
• Date to search articles from 106
• Date to search articles to 107
• How to sort or rank articles (eg. by date, by title, by
author, by journal-name etc) 108
• Data sources to be searched by the search 109
• The search duration 110
• The search subject (for now this simply gets appended to
search keywords) 111.
• The hierarchy of the profile (denoted by the profile id
of this profiles immediate parent) 200.

It will be appreciated that other embodiments may-
include other parameters that may be defined by a search
profile. A major advantage of utilising profiles is that
the users "knowledge" of a particular area to be searched
can effectively be stored in the system to be reused again
by the user and other users. Preferably, search profiles
may be available to a number of users eg. medical
professionals. Users may update or amend or add new
profiles utilising their particular knowledge of an area.
Over time, therefore, the system increases its knowledge
base. Searching becomes quicker and more accurate. The
search profile reflects the nature of the search enquiry.
This embodiment, the search profile reflects £he nature of
the clinical enquiry. The search profile therefore
provides a "focussing" of the search. The search profile
may include search keywords to define the profile. It may
be facilitated by search key words which are selected or
entered by a user when carrying out a search.
If the user selects a profile name, the corresponding
profile characteristics are fetched and displayed in a
similar manner to the display of figure 6. The profile
parameter values may be changed. A change in the profiles
name (ID), however, has a special significance. If the
name 105 is not change, then the profiles characteristics
simply get updated. If the name, however, is changed, the
profile is considered a new profile and it is saved as a
immediate child of the profile initially displayed.
If users wish to change the profile name, they may do
so by clicking on the "Rename" button (not shown but
present in the table that displays the profile
characteristics of another existing profile - it is merely
the display of figure 6 with the addition of the "Rename"
button). In this case, none of the other profile
characteristics will change. This is done to separate the
functionality of renaming a profile from simply changing
the profile details.
At all times, if the profile name is left blank or

with a default descriptive phrase, the new profile becomes
temporary and is saved as '"Current Profile" in a
corresponding hierarchy level.
Once a profile has been selected (reference numerals
22, 23, 24 of figure 3) either by creating a new profile
or choosing an already existing profile, then a "Search"
needs to be selected. The system provides the option of a
"Simple Search" (reference numeral 25 of figure 3) or a
*Advanced Search" (reference numeral 26 of figure 3) . If
a Simple Search is selected (reference numeral 103, figure
5), the user merely enters key words that are appropriate
for the search.
If the option of "Advanced Search" is chosen (see
figure 7), the user has two alternatives.
In the first alternative, the user may create a new
Advanced Search (reference numerals 27 and 28 of figure 3)
via the Search Manager 16. Figure 7 illustrates an
example screen presented to the user for Advanced Search.
The user enters key words in field 210. The key words may
be words or phrases with AND OR NOT qualifiers. By typing
a word or phrase in the "but not" 211 window, the search
will exclude all sources containing this word or phrase.
The user may choose to save their Advanced Search for
future use by typing a name characteristic for this search
in the "Save As" 212 window and clicking on the Save 213
button. The search is then saved for future use by the
user and other users. Saving searches as a template adds
further to the "Knowledge" of the system. Saved Searches
can be created by users, shared between users and edited
in a similar manner to Profiles.
The alternative option than a user creating their own
Advanced Search, is for a user to select a pre-stored
Advanced Search template (reference numeral 2 9 of figure
3). Figure 8 illustrates the drop down list for the saved
searches. The drop down list 114 includes names of all
the saved searches that have been saved. Clicking on a

name eg. asthma search 215 selects that search and also
gives a list of the key words 116 which the search
includes. Once the search has been selected (27, 28, 2 9
of figure 3) the user may initiate the search (reference
numeral 30 figure 3) by pressing the "Go" button 115. The
search engine 14 then initiates the search based on the
instructions from the search profile and the Search
selected. The search engine 14 searches the data sources
15 and provides, in this embodiment, an XML document back
to the system. The XML document is parsed and the results
are displayed by the interface 10 in a user friendly
manner.
Figure 9 illustrates an example display'^of search
results. The layout of the display is effected by the
selection of the original Search and Profile. At the very
top of the display 116 a summary of the search is
presented, which shows the data sources which were used
and also names the search. The search results are then
listed in accordance with the "ranking" stated in the
profile in a list further down screen 117. Documents
coming from different sources are grouped together to
represent main categories such as guidelines, journals and
text books. Numbers in brackets represent the amount of
documents found in each category.
The user may view the list of retrieved documents by
moving the scroll bar 118 up and down. By clicking on any
of the underlined text "More Information" the user may
view the details of the retrieved document. Further
information could include various levels of detail such as
an abstract or a link to a full document.
Figure 10 illustrates an example display of a further
embodiment of the present invention which does not include
an option for "Advanced Search" or "Simple Search". In
this Profile Manager embodiment a saved search 50 can be
selected or alternatively key words can be entered via a
plurality of fields 51 which can be defined and arranged
to provide a categorisation for each of the key words to

be entered. In the example illustrated, key words may be
entered in the categories "Disease", "Drug ", Symptoms"
and "Others".
The profile manager 13 may assign different
importance or treat the key words in each category
differently depending upon the profile that has been
selected. For example, "A Disease " category key word is
more important in "Diagnosis" profile and a "Drug" key
word is more important in the "Prescribing" profile. The
search can be affected by the category assigned to key
words, as well as the profile.
A further facility of this further embodiment of the
invention is the facility to search a data source more .
than once for each search inquiry. Referring to Figure
11, this embodiment offers' "match 1" "match 2" 53 searches
for the same search enquiry. Match 1 and Match 2 apply
different searching approaches as regards selectivity and
specificity. For example, the first search "match 1" of
the data source can be specified as extremely narrow and
have high priority in the "mix" of results, e.g. by using
all key words that have been typed in by the searcher and
by searching in "titles", and "abstracts" only. The
second search "match 2" can vary the ratio between
selectivity and specificity , appropriate for the size and
clinical importance of the source. Although this
embodiment shows two different types of searches to be
applied to the source, it will be appreciated that further
searches having varied ratios between selectivity and
specificity can be incorporated.
For the same search inquiry, therefore, several
searches having different approaches to the same data
source can be carried out.
The above embodiment has been specifically designed
for use for medical professional for searching databases
for clinical knowledge..._._, It will be appreciated that the
system of the present invention can be used to search any
data source and is not limited to data sources containing

medical knowledge.
The above embodiment is arranged to search data
sources over a network such as the Internet. It will be
appreciated that the present invention is not limited to a
system which searches data sources over the Internet.
Other embodiments may search databases locally to a
computing system, may search over a network that is not
the Internet, or may do a mixture of both.
In the above embodiment, search templates are
separated into Search Profiles and Searches. It will be
appreciated that a search template may be organised in
different ways to this.
As discussed above, search profiles are'ynot limited
by the parameters which have been listed in the above
embodiment. Many other search parameters are possible for
profiles.
For example, a search profile may specify the order
in which the results from different sources are presented
by the user interface (eg. source 1, then source 2, then
source 3) whether they are intermingled according to a
defined ranking criterio. Also the number of results to
be reported back from a source can be specified. Further,
a profile may specify which elements of a result are
displayed eg. for an article title, author, journal,
elements, abstract or elements abstracted from text, and
links to that article. These are all different sub
components of the document, which the searching system may
recognise from a predefined structure according to the
stored document model, for example in XML which recognises
either tags in the retrieved document or searches for key
words which identify the specific document component.
A profile may also indicate whether the sources are
to be "linked". For example, a CD-Rom version of a text
book can be stored locally and be fast to access, and a
Web version might be more up to date, but slower. A
profile may define that the two sources are linked and
integrate their results so that they speak with "one

voice" to the user.
Further, some data sources may understand special
commands eg. the MEDLINE™ system recognises defined words
from MESH, and combines keywords in its own standard
expression language and the profile could define specific
use of key words for different sources.
Note that, as discussed above profiles may have
their own associated key words (preferably arranged into
the most appropriate expressions) which will be used at
all times with the search.
Other attributes that a profile may have include the
following:
for each data source;
number of results to retrieve from this source;
weight (ie. Contribution from this source to mix)
maximum search time;
priority of the source in the mix;
lexical variant generation capability on/off.
The system may include a dictionary of words which
may be selected from by the user as key words, in order to
assist the user.
Another option for profiles is that they could
include some parameters that are permanently fixed and
cannot be edited by users. For example, it may be
desirable to ensure that a particular profile for
searching anatomy is always searches "Grays Anatomy" and
the Search Profile may be fixed so that this text is
always searched. Other aspects of the profile could be
amended. On the other hand, the profile could include a
parameter which specifies that a particular source is not
to be searched.
As discussed above, search templates (including
profiles and searches )can be shared between users. This
can be done in any number of ways. For example, all new
templates may be stored centrally by the system and shared
by all, or stored centrally and only available to the user
who created it, or available to a certain group (much like

a bulletin board with a subscriber model). Alternatively,
new templates may be stored locally on the user's system
and only used by the creator. A further alternative is
that all new templates may be stored centrally but down
loaded to a local computer to be added to its library, so
that there may be a separate template library to the core
templates normally available - users browse the library to
add more templates to their system to suit their
particular needs.
There are also other options for sharing templates.
The searching system of the present invention, it will be
appreciated, may be implemented by any software/hardware
arrangement that implements the functions described above.
It will be appreciated from the above description the
present invention is concerned with the user interface and
the provision of search queries for searching multiple
databases (the "front end")- The actual search engine
(the "back end") which implements the search queries
formulated in accordance with the present invention, is
not part of the present invention. Any appropriate search
engine which can search the data source may be utilised to
search in accordance with the search template.
The following two examples illustrate aspects of the
embodiment of the present invention. One example relates
to searching of clinical databases. The other example
relates to searching of legal databases, in order to
illustrate that the system can be applied across any
subject matter.
Example 1:
The user may choose one of many available profiles, each
of which has the capacity to modify the search query
without user intervention.
Table 1. Detailed design of the profile "Diagnosis".
#1#, #2#, #3#, #4# indicate the content typed by the users
as keywords.
TABLE 1
There are three ways in which the profile reflects the
nature of the search.
by adding additional search words to the search query
by restricting the search space within the selected source
by allowing to perform search only on sources which are
most relevant to the nature of the medical enquiry
The example above shows the profile "diagnosis".
Additional words such as "diagnosis" or 'signs and
symptoms" are being included in the search query without
user intervention.
The search space restriction is illustrated by using words
such as " Practice Guidelines - English - lOyears
Human" applied to the PubMed source, once again
transparent to the user.
Only four out of 8 sources are used in the profile
"Diagnosis" because only these sources contain^ information
most relevant to the medical enquiries in the area of
differential diagnosis.
The Keywords.
The properly defined search query requires that the user
makes a choice of the search profile and types at least
one keyword. However user may attempt to make much more
complex search using many keywords at the same time. The
user interface allows to streamline this process of
entering the keywords by.
Providing multiple entry fields with descriptors
Providing "Builder" functionality which assists in making
more complex Boolean logic enquiries.
Categorisation of the keywords.
A unique feature of the user interface is the
categorization of keywords
The above example indicates that different keywords can be
entered in separate entry fields according to their
meaning. Disease names are expected to by entered in the
field with the "disease" descriptor or drug names to be
entered in the field with the "drug" descriptor.
This unique approach allows the system to "know" the
category to which each keyword belongs. That knowledge is
use in the profile engineering to assign different
importance to keyword categories (eg. keyword entered as
"disease" is of primary importance in the "Diagnosis" and
"Treatment" profile but the drug name is most important in
"Drug info" profile)
Multiple search in, the same source.
The information contained in any specific source is
usually structured according to certain pre-defined rules.
For example textbooks are structured as sections,
chapters, sub-chapters, paragraphs. Other sources such
as PubMed may use purpose-build lists of key terms such as
MeSH to promote the better search techniques.
The system allows to explore such pre-defined structure of
the data source by conducting multiple searches on the
same source with various level of specificity and
precision. An example of this would be to search for the
main keyword first in the titles, then in the abstract or
summary, and then in the main body of the text. The
results are then checked for duplicates and displayed
together in the pre-defined order.
Table 2 above illustrates this approach with two sources,
allowing for two searches in each source in response to
the single user enquiry. Theoretically there is no limit
on the amount of multiple searches conducted on one
source.
Search results.
The results obtained in response to the search query are
grouped according to a certain criteria. The examples of
the categories are : Journals, Textbooks and Guidelines.
(ref numeral 300, Fig 12) . New categories can be created
in future as well as the new functionality to performed
the secondary searches (on previously retrieved results)
The user may choose to read abstract of the selected
PubMed article or full text info retrieved from the other
sources as illustrated in Figure 12.

Example 2
Similar search capacity as employed in the medical field
of knowledge can be used in the field of legal enquiries.
The capacity of using multiple sources and multiple entry
fields would be most suitable for complex, multi-indexed
data sources. One of the hypothetical examples can be
illustrated as follows:
Examples of hypothetical search profiles may include :
Criminal, Family, Fraud and Legislation. Esentially any
well defined type of legal enquiry can became a pre-
defined search profile.
Modifications and variations as would be apparent to a
skilled addressee are deemed to be within the scope of the
present invention.
WE CLAIM :
1. A searching system arranged to search information available from a search
space which comprises at least one data source, the searching system comprising a
user interface, a storage means, a plurality of search templates stored by storage
means, each stored search template comprising one or more search parameters,
wherein the user interface is arranged to enable a user to select a search template,
wherein the searching system is arranged to carry out a search as claimed in the pre-
stored search parameters, and wherein the search templates comprise a plurality of
user selectable search profiles, each search profile comprising one or more
parameters for applying search knowledge to a search specified by a used whereby)
the user specified search is implemented by the searching system as claimed in the)
search knowledge./
2. A searching system as claimed in claim 1, the interface comprising means
enabling new search templates to be added to the system by users.
3. A searching system as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, the system being
arranged so that search templates may be accessed by a plurality of users.
4. A searching system as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the search
templates comprise templates arranged to store searches comprising a plurality of
key words for use by the searching system in carrying out the search whereby, in
operation, a user may select a template stored search as the user specified search.
5. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims,
comprising search entry means enabling the user to enter search data to enable a
search to be carried out, whereby, in operation, the search data comprises the user
specified search.
6. A searching system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the search data
comprises key words.
7. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profiles comprise pre-stored search parameters which are arranged to
direct the search as claimed in the nature of the search enquiry.
8. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profiles comprise a plurality of pre-stored search parameters for applying
the search knowledge.
9. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profiles are programmable whereby to enable adjustment of the search
parameters.
10. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profile parameters include keywords or keyword expressions.
11. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profiles parameters specify a time period of data sources to be searched.
12. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profile parameters include a time that the system is to take to carry out the
search.
13. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profile parameters specify how a search query must be expressed for the
data source, and the search profile operates to generate a search query, utilising the
user specified search, that is in the appropriate expression form.
14. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profile comprise parameters instructing how search results are presented.
15. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims,
comprising interface means enabling the user to enter key words into one of a
plurality of predetermined categories.
16. A searching system as claimed in claim 15, the searching system being
arranged to utilise the key words in dependence on their categorisation.
17. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profile comprises parameters instructing searching of a data source a
plurality of times for a single user specified search.
18. A searching system as claimed in claim 17, wherein each one of the
plurality of searches of the same data source is arranged to have different selectivity
and specificity of the source.
19. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search profile comprises one or more parameters arranged to adjust the user
specified search to search the search space in the most appropriate way according to
the nature of the search.
20. A searching system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein
the search space comprises a plurality of data sources, and the search profile
comprises one or more parameters which govern selection from one or more of the
data sources for implementation of the search.
21. A searching system as claimed in claim 20, wherein the plurality of data
sources comprise heterogenous data sources.
22. A system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the search profiles comprise one
or more parameters arranged to adjust the user specified search so that the search is
carried out appropriately for the data source being searched.
23. A system as claimed in claim 22, wherein the search profile is arranged to
implement the search across a plurality of the data sources, and for each of the data
sources a search profile comprises parameters for implementing the search in the
most appropriate way for the particular data source.
24. A system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the search profile is arranged to
implement the search by generating a plurality of search queries utilizing the search,
one for each of the plurality of data sources being searched.
25. In a searching system which is arranged to search information available
from a space which comprises at least one data source, a method of searching
comprising the steps of receiving a user specified search, and applying a user
selected search template to implement the search as claimed in search knowledge,
the user selected search template comprising a search profile comprising one or more
parameters for applying the search knowledge to the search specified by the user.
26. A method as claimed in claim 24, wherein the search profiles are
programmable and the method comprises the step of a user adjusting the search
parameters of a search profile.
27. A method as claimed in claim 25 or claim 26, wherein the search profile
comprises pre-stored search parameters which are arranged to direct the search as
claimed in the nature of the search enquiry.
28. A method as claimed in claims 25, 26 or 27, wherein the search profile
comprises a plurality of pre-stored searchparameters for applying the search
knowledge.
29. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 28, wherein the search
profile is programmable to enable adjustment of the search parameters.
30. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 29, wherein the search
profile parameters include keywords or keyword expressions.
31. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 30, wherein the search
profile parameters specify a time period of data sources to be searched.
32. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 31, wherein the search
profile parameters include a time that the system is to take to carry out the search.
33. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 32, wherein the search
profile parameters specify how a search query must be expressed for the data source,
and the search profile operates to generate a search query, utilizing the user specified
search, that is in an appropriate expression form.
34. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 33, wherein the search
profile comprises parameters instructing how search results are presented.
35. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 34, wherein the search
profile comprises parameters instructing searching of a data source a plurality of
times for a single user specified search.

36. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 35, wherein each one of the
plurality of searches of the same data source is arranged to have different selectivity
and specificity of the source.
37. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 36, wherein the search
profile comprises one or more parameters arranged to adjust the user specified search
to search the search space in the most appropriate way according to the nature of the
search.
38. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 37, wherein the search
space influence a plurality of data sources, and the search profile comprises one or
more parameters which govern selection from one ore more of the data sources for
implementation of the search.
39. A method as claimed in claim 38, wherein the plurality of data sources
comprise heterogeneous data sources.
40. A method as claimed in claim 39, wherein the search profile includes one or
more parameters arranged to adjust the user specified search so that the search is
carried out appropriately for the data source being searched.
41. A method as claimed in claim 38, wherein the search profile is arranged to
implement the search across a plurality of the data sources, and for each of the data
sources, the search profile includes parameters for implementing the search in the
most appropriate way for the particular data source.
42. A method as claimed in claim 41, wherein the search profile is arranged to
implement the search by generating a plurality of search queries utilizing the search,
one for each of a plurality of data sources.
43. A searching system as claimed in any one of claims I to 24, the system
being arranged to enable search profiles to be shared and accessed by multiple users.
44. A method as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 42, comprising the step of
sharing search profiles among multiple users.

The present invention relates to a searching system (1) and method arranged to
search information available from one or more data sources (4, 5, 6). The searching
system comprises a user interface (2) and a storage means which is arranged to store
search templates. The search templates include search profiles which include
parameters which are arranged to implement search knowledge to carry out a user
input search. Parameters implementing the search knowledge may include the time
period of data sources to be searched, the data sources to be used, and key words
delimiting the search.

Documents:

680-KOLNP-2004-(09-10-2012)-CORRESPONDENCE.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-abstract.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-assignment.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-claims.pdf

680-KOLNP-2004-CORRESPONDENCE 1.1.pdf

680-KOLNP-2004-CORRESPONDENCE 1.2.pdf

680-KOLNP-2004-CORRESPONDENCE 1.3.pdf

680-KOLNP-2004-CORRESPONDENCE-1.4.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-correspondence.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-description (complete).pdf

680-kolnp-2004-drawings.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-examination report.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-form 1.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-form 13.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-form 18.pdf

680-KOLNP-2004-FORM 3 1.2.pdf

680-KOLNP-2004-FORM 3.1.1.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-form 3.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-form 5.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-gpa.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-reply to examination report.pdf

680-kolnp-2004-specification.pdf

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Patent Number

257742

Indian Patent Application Number

680/KOLNP/2004

PG Journal Number

44/2013

Publication Date

01-Nov-2013

Grant Date

30-Oct-2013

Date of Filing

24-May-2004

Name of Patentee

UNISEARCH LIMITED

Applicant Address

RUPERT MYERS BUILDING, GATE 14, BARKER STREET, UNSW, SYDNEY NEW SOUTH WALES

Inventors:

#	Inventor's Name	Inventor's Address
1	COIERA ENRICO	C/- RUPERT MYERS BUILDING, GATE14, BARKER STREET, UNSW, SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES 2052
2	VICKLAND VICTOR	C/- RUPERT MYERS BUILDING, GATE 14, BARKER STREET, UNSW, STDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES 2052

PCT International Classification Number

G06F 17/30

PCT International Application Number

PCT/AU2002/01567

PCT International Filing date

2002-11-20

PCT Conventions:

#	PCT Application Number	Date of Convention	Priority Country
1	PR 8948	2001-11-20	Australia