Online search for logically-related noninteractive medical literatures: A systematic trial-and-error strategy

An online search strategy to help find pairs of medical literatures that are logically (scientifically) related but noninteractive is described and exemplified. "Noninteractive" means that the two pairs have no articles in common, do not cite each other, and are not co-cited—thus implying that any logical relationship between them may be unintended and perhaps unnoticed. In earlier papers I analyzed two noninteractive sets of medical articles ("literatures") that together contain implications that cannot be seen within either of the two sets separately (Swanson, 1986; Swanson, 1987), My purpose was to show that unintended and unnoticed connections exist between pairs of literatures, and can be revealed by bringing the two sets together. Since then I have developed a more systematic process for identifying such sets of literatures; this note describes that process. The proposed strategy consists of two parts. The first part is an exploratory process intended to stimulate human creativity in perceiving connections that identify logicallyrelated pairs of literatures. Second, and more prescriptive, is a method for eliminating all pairs except those that are noninteractive. This dual "explore/exclude", or trial-and-error, search strategy will be applied here to the pair of literatures already studied and reported (Swanson, 1986; Swanson, 1987). That reported example entails a syllogism with premises split between two noninteractive sets of articles, but the strategy itself is not limited to syllogisms. In principle, any chain of reasoning that can be constructed from links scattered among noninteractive sets can become the basis for new connections. The problem prototype for which the strategy seems best suited is the search for an unknown drug or dietary factor that might cure a specified disease — in this example, Raynaud's disease, a peripheral circulatory disorder. I shall illustrate one plausible route from the Raynaud literature to the literature on a possible cure, a route that is taken without knowing the specific destination in advance.