TECH TALK

Simplify Your Reading With an RSS Reader

Get all the latest journal articles you need in one organized place

BY ERIN MURPHY, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

In the past, there were three major journals, so it was easy to peruse them every month. Now, there are so many publications that keeping track of all the information we need has become an art and a science in itself,” says John W. Kitchens, MD, of Retina Associates of Kentucky.

For Dr. Kitchens and many other busy physicians, RSS readers provide a simple, efficient solution.

WHY USE AN RSS READER?

RSS (short for Really Simple Syndication) is designed to help you follow frequently updated sites in one place, instead of going from site to site or scrolling through headlines on Twitter. RSS readers gather all the latest updates to your journals, news sources, blogs, and podcasts. You read the headlines and summaries and link to full content that interests you.

“Managing information has become a major part of medicine,” Dr. Kitchens says. “The nice thing about an RSS reader is that it helps me keep up to date with current publications in a very organized way that I can customize to my interests and preferences.”

GET ORGANIZED

To use RSS on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or all three, there are many software options.

Both Mac and PC browsers and email programs have built-in RSS readers. Since Google Reader was discontinued in 2013, Dr. Kitchens began using the Feeder plug-in for his browser, Google Chrome. He can view his feeds in the browser or in the Feeder app on his smartphone.

“All my feeds appear in both places. They sync automatically, so once I’ve viewed something on one device, both devices mark it as ‘read,’” Dr. Kitchens says.

There are too many RSS readers to list, but some popular smartphone apps include Feedly, Newsify, and Flipboard. You also might want to check out RSS programs for Mac, such as Reeder, NetNewswire, and Leaf, or PC-based FeedDemon, FeedReader, and GreatNews. If you want to sync readers across platforms as Dr. Kitchens is doing, be sure to choose an app that has that capability.

STAY INFORMED

Once you find an RSS reader that feels good to you, download it and start collecting feeds. To subscribe to a feed, you can go to the website you want to follow and click on the fan-like RSS icon. If you don’t see one, try copying and pasting the URL into the RSS reader’s subscriptions.

Your RSS reader will immediately pull down recent headlines from your feeds, along with either a brief description or the entire article (depending on the website’s RSS settings). Every time you open the reader, you’ll see new, unread headlines waiting in your feeds.

You can follow ophthalmology journals directly from their RSS feeds, but Dr. Kitchens chooses a different approach.

“I use PubMed to get RSS feeds showing all of the articles published in the major medical journals, ophthalmology journals, and retina specialty journals,” Dr. Kitchens explains. “To do this, search PubMed for a journal title. On the results page, click ‘Create RSS’ and copy the URL into your subscriptions. PubMed will push the title and abstract to your browser and smartphone app. Using the RSS feeds, will help you stay informed without missing an article, and you’ll be able to do so in an organized, low-maintenance way.” NRP