PubMed Medical Literature Research MCP server

This MCP server provides powerful tools for searching, retrieving, and analyzing academic medical literature from the PubMed database. It allows you to find articles based on topics or researchers, get detailed publication information, and generate statistics about research patterns.

Installation

To install the Medical Literature Research Tool:

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the project directory:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd medical-literature-tool
   

2. Install the required dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Create a .env file in the project root if configuration settings are needed.

Running the Server

Start the MCP server using one of these commands:

mcp run pubmed_server.py

For development mode with additional debugging information:

mcp dev pubmed_server.py

Alternatively, you can add the server to your MCP client configuration for persistent access.

Available Tools

Finding Articles

The find_articles tool allows you to search for medical literature based on topics and researcher names.

Parameters:

• topics - List of medical topics or keywords to search in titles and abstracts
• researchers - List of researcher/author names to search for
• result_limit - Maximum number of results to return (defaults to 15)

Example usage:

response = client.tools.find_articles(
    topics=["diabetes", "insulin resistance"],
    researchers=["Smith J"],
    result_limit=10
)

Getting Publication Details

Use the get_publication_details tool to retrieve comprehensive information about a specific publication.

Parameters:

• article_id - PubMed ID of the article to retrieve

Example usage:

details = client.tools.get_publication_details(
    article_id="12345678"
)

Analyzing Publication Statistics

The get_article_statistics tool provides analysis of publication patterns for a specific researcher.

Parameters:

• researcher - Name of the researcher/author to analyze

Example usage:

stats = client.tools.get_article_statistics(
    researcher="Johnson AB"
)

Response Structure

Each tool returns structured data with various information:

• find_articles returns search results, metadata, and performance metrics
• get_publication_details provides article metadata and formatted citations
• get_article_statistics includes publication counts, top journals, and publication years timeline

How to add this MCP server to Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.