I harp constantly on the importance of vocabulary in search, so I’m not going to get into it right now. But vocabulary is one of the reasons I get so interested in those “top searches” lists. They tell what kind of words people are using and sometimes bring to my attention terms and concepts I hadn’t heard of.

I was very interested to read about SearchMedica’s ‘Clinical Search Terms’ reports. this quarterly report will show the list of top searches used at SearchMedica.com, ostensibly by medical professionals. (As using the search engine seems to require no registration, I’m not sure how the users are being identified as medical professionals.)

Top searches include breast cancer and lung cancer, which surprised me because those searches are essentially layman’s vocabulary. Then I saw vertebroplasty metastases and aphthous ulcers. Alrighty then.

SearchMedica.com divides its search into three tabs — general, psychiatry, and oncology/hematology. You can get the press release, with the announcement of the top searches in the preliminary Clinical Search Terms report, here.