FindZebra

FindZebra provides targeted search of curated medical resources to assist diagnosis and research of rare diseases.

Key Features:

• Vertical search engine: Implements a specialized search engine tailored for rare disease queries using a curated set of orphan-disease–relevant medical resources.
• Open-source indexing: Leverages open-source technology to curate and index freely available online medical information.
• Performance evaluation: Development included evaluation on 56 real-life diagnostic cases comparing default and customized search configurations.
• Google Search customization: Supports customization of Google Search to enhance retrieval for rare disease queries.
• Ontology and UMLS integration: Incorporates medical ontologies and UMLS (Unified Medical Language System) concepts into its search functionality.

Scientific Applications:

• Clinical diagnosis support: Retrieves targeted literature and resource matches to aid clinicians and researchers in identifying potential diagnoses for rare or complex cases.
• Rare disease research: Facilitates access to curated medical information and structured terminology to support research and knowledge discovery in rare diseases.

Methodology:

FindZebra uses open-source technology to curate and index freely available online medical information, integrates medical ontologies and UMLS concepts into its search functionality, supports customization of Google Search, and was evaluated on 56 real-life diagnostic cases comparing default and customized configurations.