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When the world's largest biomedical library needed a new search function for its website, it partnered with Vivisimo. Using the Vivisimo Velocity Search Platform, the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) supports tens of thousands of users searching the site for the precise medical information they require. Spotlighting of key content has helped keep the NLM's MedlinePlus website consistently ranked among the highest in portals for government and even most businesses.

Whether it is a patient trying to better understand a diagnosis or a doctor researching the latest treatment options, for many, the Internet has become the first line of defense in heath care. In fact, some of the worldwide web's most popular destinations provide visitors with important health care information.

Giving people access to medical literature has been the mission of the U.S. National Library of Medicine for more than 150 years. The NLM, on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, has evolved into the world's largest biomedical library, as well as one of the most visited medical sites on the Internet.

The NLM had been using another software solution for its search, but customer satisfaction survey respondents complained about the engine and the poor quality of search results. Staff and other users said they could get better results by simply using a public search engine. At the same time, the NLM staff was not pleased by the level of customer support they were receiving from its legacy search product.

"Given that series of events, we decided it was time to look for a new search partner," said Wei Ma, the NLM's project officer for the search engine project.

Searching for a better solution

As part of an extensive government request for quotations process, the NLM asked prospective partners for their capabilities as well as a prototype of their software. Several vendors replied with proposals, but Vivisimo earned the highest technical score by effectively responding to NLM's needs.

The NLM chose to implement the Vivisimo Velocity Search Platform by itself within a few months. Vivisimo prepared the NLM team with onsite training in both implementation and day-to-day administration.

"We entered into a partnership with Vivisimo. We worked with Vivisimo's technical team to give us some tips and tricks as we performed our own implementation," Ma said. "There was a great knowledge transfer. As a result, we learned a lot more about Velocity and Vivisimo learned more about what we wanted."

"Vivisimo stood out because its proposal was very responsive to our needs. Vivisimo listened to us and gave us what we needed, which was flexibility and configurability," said Joyce Backus, deputy chief of the NLM's Public Services Division.

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