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Association for
Veterinary Informatics
NEWSLETTER
July - August, 1997
Harmon Rogers
(Lake Stevens, WA) - President; - President-Elect; James T. Case
(UC-Davis) - Secretary Treasurer; Ronald D. Smith (Illinois) -
Newsletter Editor
IN THIS ISSUE
ASSOCIATION
NEWS
AVI
Meeting Times and Places
From:
James Case <jcase@CVDLS.UCDAVIS.EDU>
The
AVI working groups and annual business meeting will be held on
Tuesday July 21, 1997 at the following times and places:
Sands
Regency Hotel
8am -12pm Heritage II Room - Computer
Assisted Instruction Working Group
8am-12pm Embassy Room -
Electronic Medical Records and Standards Working Groups
12-2pm
- Heritage II - AVI Annual Business meeting and luncheon
The
business meeting is open to all members and lunch will be
provided. Non members can attend the luncheon for $20 and receive
a free associate membership in the AVI, or can join the AVI at the
associate level ($20) or the full membership level($35) and
receive a free luncheon. Either method is acceptable.
For
those who are planning on attending the business meeting, please
let me know so we can plan for enough space and food.
Jim
Case
Secretary/Treasurer, AVI
How
to Contact AVI
Applications
for membership, accompanied by a check for $35 payable to the AVI,
should be sent to:
Dr. James T. Case; Secretary Treasurer,
AVI; 1590 Augusta Ct., Dixon, CA 95620
Phone: 916/752-4408;
FAX: 916/752-5680; e-mail: JimCase@aol.com
Dr.
Case is responsible for distribution of the hardcopy version of
the AVI Newsletter.
Newsletter items can be sent to:
Dr.
Ronald D. Smith, Newsletter Editor, AVI; UI College of Veterinary
Medicine; 2001 South Lincoln; Urbana, IL 61801.
Phone:
217/333-2449; FAX: 217/333-4628; e-mail: rd-smith@uiuc.edu
If
you are an AVI member and would like to be on the AVI Newsletter
electronic distribution list, send an e-mail message to the
Newsletter Editor. Although the electronic version is only an
ASCII (text) file, it's faster, searchable, easier to store and
retrieve, and environmentally friendly.
Current and past
issues of the AVI Newsletter are also available on the Web at the
following URL:
http://netvet.wustl.edu/avi.htm.
CORRESPONDENCE
Web-Based
Case-Based Project
From: Fred
Smith <fsmith@CALC.VET.UGA.EDU>
If
you are interested in Web-based case-based learning then you may
be interested in the following.
We have a small funded
project under way to develop a case-based learning system with
outputs in several different formats, including the Web. We have
divided the project into three parts. They are:
1. Case
editor - A program to collect case data from the content expert
and store that data in the abstraction file.
2. Abstraction
file - a data file where the abstracted case data can be
stored.
3. Output filters - software that takes the data in
the abstraction file and produces any desired output format for
the case.
We have defined the preliminary format for the
abstraction file. We are now writing the first of several
Java-based filters. This first filter will produce Web-based
(HTML) cases. Future filters can produce case output as VRML (3D),
audio-only, class-presentation or any other format. (As the
programmer says, "We can use interpretive dance if that is
what someone wants!".) The Java-based editor will follow
later.
If this sounds like something you might be
interested in please visit our web site (vrml.vet.uga.edu) for
some early examples. Or just drop me a
note.
Thanks....
Fred
Fred G. Smith, DVM,
PhD
Voice: (706) 542-5550 FAX: (706)
542-0051
FSMITH@CALC.VET.UGA.EDU
http://WWW.VAR.VET.UGA.EDU
NAHMS
as an Additional Educational Resource for Staff and Students
To:
rd-smith@uiuc.edu
From: Lisa Lumar
<llumar@www.aphis.usda.gov>
(Editor:
The following comments were sent to me relative to the University
of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine site that I manage. I'm
sharing them as they are of interest to all "Webmasters"
and "Bookmarkers".)
Please consider adding the
National Animal Health Monitoring System's (NAHMS) page to your
web site listings. Our site contains animal health information on
several commodites: aquaculture, sheep, dairy, swine, beef cattle,
beef feedlot cattle, BSE, food safety issues, management and
production issues, etc. The address is
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cahm/nproj.htm
It
might prove to be a useful resource for your students and staff.
Also, I noticed you had a link to the gopher for DxMonitor, we
have a web site for DxMonitor as well that might have more current
information
(htpp://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cahm/dxmon.htm).
Thank
you,
Lisa Lumar
USDA:APHIS:VS-CEAH
Center for Animal
Health Monitoring (CAHM) and the National Animal Health Monitoring
System.
ROBUST
TEXT - BASED EMR
Paul
Brentson
Hospital
Administrator
Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital
UC
Davis, California 95616
e-mail:
pbrentson@ucdavis.edu
voice:
916/752-2945
fax: 916/752-9620
The Veterinary Medical Teaching
Hospital (VMTH) at UC Davis has developed a hospital information
system that is well integrated, merging pieces of demographic,
financial, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and medical information as
they relate to clients, patients or specific visits. The resulting
computerized patient records (CPRs) contain a wealth of
information that is useful for case management, clinical
instruction and retrospective research, and provides a primary
link to our referral community. This system will be demonstrated
and discussed at the AVHIMA (American Veterinary Health
Information Management Association) section of the AVMA meeting in
Reno on July 23, 1997, in a session entitled "Free Text EMR -
Ten Years Later".
In 1987, the VMTH embarked on a
controversial path of free text entry and retrieval of medical,
surgical and diagnostic information into an electronic medical
record (EMR). Our experience over the past 10 years has convinced
us beyond a shadow of a doubt that we made the right decision for
our hospital. This path has resulted in our medical records being
completed in timely fashion without complaint, and they are much
more complete, detailed, legible and professional than at any time
in the past. Many sections of the EMR are created by the DVM
students and residents or faculty during the course of the
patients' visits, so the EMR now plays a central role in both our
clinical instruction and daily case management. Elements of the
EMR (which we call our Visit Summary) include:
presenting
complaint
pertinent
history
physical
exam findings
inter-service
consultations
problems
noted
medical
and surgical procedures performed laboratory results
imaging
reports
pathology
reports
surgical
reports
pharmacy
dispensations
clinical
diagnoses
pathological
diagnoses
plans and
progress notes (SOAPs)
discharge
summary
discharge instructions
The complete nature of textual entries
(all of which is stored electronically) into medical records, has
dramatically improved retrieval of pertinent cases for any set of
search criteria. When searching for pertinent cases, the entire
body of EMRs can be searched, or the search can be limited to one
of the above fields (e.g., clinical diagnoses). Every word entered
in the free-text fields is automatically identified as a "keyword"
in the database, and is cross-referenced to the particular field
of the specific EMR (visit). An individual word may provide the
basis for a search, or words in combination may be searched with
"or" operators (e.g., renal or kidney), or "and"
operators (e.g., acute and renal and failure). Words of interest
are typically searched with wildcards to pick up different word
forms and suffixes (e.g., enterol* would retrieve enterolith,
enteroliths, enterolithiasis, etc.), or misspellings (e.g.,
fec*lith would retrieve fecolith or fecalith).
A general
search template has been created which allows users to specify not
only keywords of interest, but other criteria, as well. These
criteria include: species; breed; sex; weight range; age range;
date ranges of interest; clinicians; and procedures performed.
Future plans for the general search template call for the
inclusion of laboratory results parameters and cross-platform
searching. Most desired searches (>95%) can currently be
conducted by clinicians, students or staff without programmer or
medical records staff assistance, and the appropriate cases are
typically found in a matter of seconds, even when searching ten
years of data.
The CPR contains all the EMR information
noted above, as well as detailed financial information,
demographic information (client, patient and referring
veterinarian), appointment information and various histories
(laboratory values, weight, locations, pharmaceuticals, etc.).
Information in these CPRs provides the basis for great operational
support, using the computer to full advantage for such things as:
scheduling appointments across a wide variety of Service Units and
individual receiving schedules; electronic creation of invoices
for each visit from appointment information; daily census
reconciliation; managing clients' credit status; managing accounts
receivable; documenting client and referring veterinarian
communications; and managing reminders for any number of different
purposes.
Point-of-service (POS) entry of information is a
key element of the existing EMR. Reception staff enter presenting
complaints (which become part of the appointment information and
part of the EMR information), lab staff enter lab requests upon
receipt of the sample (which become part of the invoice and part
of the EMR) and lab results upon acquisition of those results
(which become part of the EMR), ICU technicians enter
hospitalization information daily (which becomes part of the
invoice), students and/or clinicians enter pertinent history and
physical examination findings immediately following the
examination (which becomes part of the EMR), etc. Where possible,
direct interfaces between lab equipment and the hospital computer
have been programmed to further improve the speed of results
reporting. No piece of information is entered more than once, but
many pieces are viewed in multiple output formats.
The
same information that is in the EMR is formatted a little
differently, and used for referral communications. The Referral
Summary looks a lot like the Visit Summary, but is formatted for
mailing in a windowed envelope, allows for a personal note to the
referring veterinarian, and does not include the detailed Plans
and Progress Notes section. Referral Summaries are automatically
staged for mailing as soon as the case is assigned a "final"
status, or at ten days post discharge, whichever comes first.
Also, the Discharge Instructions section is formatted differently
still, and automatically mailed to the referring veterinarian
within 24 hours of discharge. Both of these communications have
transformed labor intensive processes (characterized by erratic
and untimely communications) into powerful information provided in
timely fashion, because all the information is simply a by-product
of that used for many other purposes. To further improve these
communications capabilities, we have made the full EMR available
to the referring veterinarian or primary care provider across the
World Wide Web (individual password protected) as soon as a
"final" status has been assigned to a visit.
In
summary, the use of free text in our EMR (in a complex teaching
hospital) has elevated the centrality and importance of the
medical record to a level far beyond what was ever envisioned when
we originally embarked on this journey. In addition to
facilitating timely entry of comprehensive medical, surgical and
diagnostic information, this approach has had a significant
positive impact on individual case management, the delivery of
clinical instruction, retrospective retrieval of cases of interest
and referral communications. And all this has been accomplished
with no net increase in staff support positions!
Paul
Brentson
Hospital Administrator
Veterinary Medical Teaching
Hospital
UC Davis, California 95616
PRODUCT
AVAILABILITY/REVIEWS/COMPARISONS
CDC
announces a new version of EpiInfo
From:
PopMed@ncsu.edu
(Population Medicine)
The latest version of the public
domain medical statistics package EpiInfo (v6.04b) has just been
released by the Epidemiological Program Office of the Centres for
Disease Control. Copies of the program are available on the
Internet and from Brixton Books. This version is still limited to
two digits dates but a fix will be available soon that will allow
you to enter and analyse four digit dates. Work has started on a
Windows(TM) version of the program which should be available by
Autumn 1997.
GIDEON
(Global Infectious Diseases and EpidemiOlogy Network)
Software
From: Steve Berger
<mberger@post.tau.ac.il>
We
have developed a software program for diagnosis, decision support,
disease simulation and informatics in the fields of Clinical
Infectious Diseases, Global and Country- Specific Epidemiology,
Anti-infective Agents and Vaccines, and Medical Microbiology. The
program is marketed under the name GIDEON (Global Infectious
Diseases and EpidemiOlogy Network), and is used by several hundred
facilities in 35 countries.
There are currently more than
300 generic infections, caused by over 1,000 named pathogens, most
having a distinct ecology,clinical presentation, epidemiological
profile and therapy. Experts can no longer keep up with emerging
pathogens, outbreaks, therapeutic agents, vaccines and diagnostic
tests. Relevant books and journals are generally outdated.
GIDEON
is a DOS-based software program written in Paradox, which occupies
approximately 6 MB of hard disk space and requires 4 MB of RAM;
for IBM-compatible computers having 386 CPU or higher. The program
consists of four modules: Diagnosis, Epidemiology, Therapy,
Microbiology. Extensive help screens are accessible throughout.
All material can be printed as hard copy, transferred to a word
processing program, or filed for later use (eg, to follow a
patient or bacterial strain as data become available; or for use
in teaching, simulation or future publication). Data are derived
from reports of the WHO, CDC, individual health ministries,
standard journals and texts, internet sites and searches of
Medline.
DIAGNOSIS:
The diagnosis module is designed for
disease simulation and diagnosis. The user may select from a list
205 countries or regions of disease origin; or generate a ranked
differential diagnosis for all countries (eg, the worldwide causes
of jaundice and eosinophilia). Any number of signs, symptoms and
laboratory tests can be entered, in any order. Timing (food
ingestion, entry and exit from a country, etc) can also be
indicated.
A ranked Bayesian (ie, based on known incidence and
symptom probability) differential diagnosis is generated. The user
may then review the precise numerical probability, disease profile
(incubation period, clinical features, vector, vehicle, diagnostic
tests, therapy for child and adult, etc) and status of the disease
worldwide, or in the country in question. Another option suggests
additional discriminative tests for differentiation among the
listed diseases.
Further options 'explain' why a given
additional disease was discounted (not listed in the differential
diagnosis), or why a given disease was assigned a low probability
on the list. A 'What If' option allows expansion of clinical data,
or generation of a list for other countries, given the same
clinical picture. The latter is useful when assessing tourists who
have visited multiple countries in sequence. In a blinded
multicenter study, the correct diagnosis was accessed in 94.6% of
495 cases ('sensitivity') and was ranked first in 75%
('specificity').
EPIDEMIOLOGY:
Access the
epidemiological profile and current status of all infectious
diseases (318 generic infections in the current version): endemic
countries, clinical features, diagnostic tests, etc. Lists
generated by either country or disease. Display the current
epidemiology for each disease either worldwide, or by country.
Data concerning 'global impact diseases' are presented separately:
AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Cholera and Yellow Fever (including
vaccination requirements). A second option generates a list of
diseases compatible for any group of user-specified parameters.
For example, all diseases transmitted by mosquitoes vs. all viral
diseases transmitted by mosquitos in Uganda.
THERAPY
Current
descriptive data and guidelines for all anti- infective drugs
(antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antiparasitics,
antiretrovirals), vaccines and globulin preparations: mechanism of
action, derivation, dosage for adult or child, cerebrospinal fluid
penetration, renal failure and dialysis adjustments, toxicity,
interactions, timing of boosters and contraindications. Display
worldwide proprietary names (currently over 2,300) for each drug,
or the generic name for a given proprietary name. The user may
also list drugs or vaccines associated with a given form of
toxicity or contraindication; or list all drugs effective against
any pathogen or group of pathogens.
MICROBIOLOGY
Generate
a ranked list of bacteria, mycobacteria or yeasts compatible with
any phenotypic test or group of tests; then access an optimized
(ie, best listed first) list of further tests to differentiate
among the listed organisms; or 'ask' why any additional organism
was discounted (not listed). Generate a complete phenotypic and
ecological profile for any given taxon, or compare two to 21 taxa
selected by the user. Current and previous taxonomic designations
are also given for all species.
Further information is
available at our website - http://www.cyinfo.com/
Thank
you.
Stephen A. Berger, M.D.
INTERNET
RESOURCES
AVIARY-L
- E-Zine About BIRDS Now Aviary-List on New Host
From:
Christine Tarski <tarski@fastlane.net>
The
list AVIARY-L has moved. Aviary-L@lists.best.com has now become
Aviary-List@userhome.com. All existing subscribers have been
moved.
Aviary-List on majordomo@userhome.com
Aviary-List
is a monthly e-zine devoted to birds. It is produced by The Aviary
<http://theaviary.com/>
and contains articles of interest to birders, casual birdwatchers,
and pet bird owners. Articles include information about species of
birds, trip reports, stories, attracting birds to your backyard,
and care of pet birds. This is a monthly distribution list but
subscribers are encouraged to submit articles and topics to be
considered for future issues.
To subscribe to the list,
send:
SUBSCRIBE
to:
aviary-list-request@userhome.com
Owner:
Christine Tarski <webmaster@theaviary.com>
Birdfeeder
- Discussion List About Birdwatching
From:
Christine Tarski <Christine.Tarski@plains.NoDak.edu>
Birdfeeder
on majordomo@userhome.com
For the novice birder to the
experienced, the birdfeeder list is a mailing list for anyone who
enjoys wild birds, which includes attracting them to your
property, feeding them, providing housing for them to nest in, or
just watching them while they go about their daily business. While
many other birding lists discourage discussing the feeding of wild
birds, the birdfeeder list makes a point of encouraging it, hence
the name. However, feel free to discuss the other aspects of
birding as well.
To subscribe to the list,
send:
SUBSCRIBE
to:
birdfeeder-request@userhome.com
To
subscribe to the digest version, send:
SUBSCRIBE
to:
birdfeeder-digest-request@userhome.com
Owner: Christine
Tarski <webmaster@theaviary.com>
Moderator:
Stefanie Wieclawek <nan@vaxxine.com>
Hog
Links Helps Find Swine Information Fast
From:
FSNET-L@LISTSERV.UOGUELPH.CA
June 12, 1997
Ontario
Farmer Daily
If you are involved in the swine industry and
have been frustrated in your efforts to locate swine sites on the
Internet, there is a new web site you will want to explore. An
expanded and categorized version of OMAFRA's Internet Sites for
the Swine Industry is now online on the Swine Page of the OMAFRA
Internet Site at:
http://www.gov.on./omafra/english/livestock/swine/index.html
When
you go to the OMAFRA Swine page, there are two options: "Pork
News and Views" and "Hog Links." To explore a list
of sites, choose "Hog Links". Scroll through the list,
or select a category, and when you see a site that interests you,
just click on its name. You will not need to type in any of those
long, complicated addresses or search through pages of sites
generated by a search engine.
The list is organized
according to topic areas, covering a wide range of interests and
issues, including: General Agriculture, Animal Care/Behaviour,
Breeding and Genetics, Colleges and Universities, Crops, Extension
Services, Government Agencies, Health, Internet Resources,
Marketing, Medial/Publications, Nutrient Management, Nutrition,
Producer Groups, Production/Management, Quality Assurance,
Research, Statistics, General Swine, and Weather.
NEWS
AND COMMENTARY
Free
MEDLINE
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/freemedl.html
Department
of Health and Human Services; Public Health Service; National
Institutes of Health; National Library of Medicine; Bethesda,
Maryland 20894
On June 26, 1997, the National Library of
Medicine will hold a press conference on Capitol Hill, Washington,
D.C. to announce free web-based MEDLINE accessible through PubMed
and Internet Grateful ed. Attached is the Press Release for the
press conference which ou are encouraged to share with your users
and other colleagues on June 26th.
PubMed is an
experimental search system that provides free access to MEDLINE in
a single search. The search features include:
Sets of
related articles pre-computed for each article in MEDLINE; Choice
of search interfaces from simple keywords to advanced Boolean
expressions; Searching by MeSH index terms (main topics and
subheadings) and field restrictions; Links to publishers' Web
sites for full text-journals. Initially 24 journals are available,
some by subscription only; Clinical query form with search filters
for diagnosis, therapy and prognosis; Links to molecular biology
database of DNA/protein sequences and 3-D structure
data.
Internet Grateful Med provides free access to
MEDLINE, as well as AIDSLINE and HealthSTAR. The features
include:
* Use of the full range of Medical Subject
Headings (MeSH) and the UMLS Metathesaurus;
* Ability to
limit searches by language, publication type, age groups, etc.,
using pull down menus;
* Loansome Doc document delivery
service.
Currently, searching Internet Grateful Med
requires a valid User ID and password; however, users will not be
billed. A new version to be released in July will include free
access to several additional databases (AIDSDRUGS, AIDSTRIALS,
DIRLINE, HISTLINE, HSRPROJ, OLDMEDLINE and SDILINE) and will no
longer require a User ID.
Free MEDLINE is limited to
Web-based searching via the Internet because of great savings to
NLM in telecommunications and software costs. Thus, access to all
NLM non-Web-based systems will continue to be billed ( i.e.,
direct command language searching of ELHILL; TOXNET; PDQ; and the
DOS, Macintosh and Windows versions of Grateful Med whether access
is by direct dial, FTS2000, or the Internet).
The Press
Release and hot links to IGM and PubMed will be available on the
NLM home page (http://www.nlm.nih.gov) immediately following the
press conference. Please direct current and new users to the NLM
Web home page to search free MEDLINE and to obtain updated and
additional information about NLM databases and information
services.
Each member of the National Network of Libraries
of Medicine plays a vital role in making health information
accessible throughout the country. The Library's announcement of
free MEDLINE is only one step toward bringing quality health
information to those Americans who search the Web. Your efforts to
inform users about available information resources, to educate
them about the effective use of the various search engines, and to
assist them in obtaining copies of the articles containing the
information they seek, are critical to ensuring that every citizen
has access to the best and most up-to-date health information. We
at NLM look forward to working with you to provide the very best
and most useful information products and services.
Donald
A.B. Lindberg, M.D.
ATTACHMENT
Vice President
Gore to launch free access to world's largest source of published
medical information on World Wide Web. Consumers and health
professionals worldwide to have fingertip access to cutting-edge
research.
(Bethesda, MD -- June 26, 1997) -- The National
Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health,
will today launch a new service to provide all Americans free
access to MEDLINE -- the world's most extensive collection of
published medical information -- over the World Wide Web. Prior to
his announcement, users have had to register and pay to search
MEDLINE and other NLM databases. This free service will be
demonstrated by Vice President Albert Gore at a press briefing to
be hosted by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) on Thursday, June 26, 1997
at 10:30 a.m. in Room 192 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building,
United States Senate.
In announcing the new free service,
Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said, "American
citizens now have at their fingertips both the scientific
information gathered by the National Library of Medicine, as
represented in MEDLINE, and the extensive consumer health
information in healthfinderTM, the service for the public that we
announced in April. We are committed to using the new technology,
including the World Wide Web and the Internet, to provide health
information to the public."
"The National
Library of Medicine's debut of free Web-based searching could not
be more timely," said NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.
"The health care delivery landscape is changing. Citizens are
increasingly turning to the Web as a source of information to
improve their daily lives, including their health. So, it is vital
that they, and the health professionals who serve them, have
access to the most current and credible medical
information."
"Medical breakthroughs are
happening so rapidly that I believe health care professionals and
consumers alike should be able to tap into the most recent medical
information," added pioneering heart surgeon Michael E.
DeBakey, M.D., chair of NLM's Board of Regents. "Such
information is often the critical link in reaching the correct
diagnosis, resulting in lives saved, unnecessary treatment
avoided, and hospitalization reduced. Even with all our modern
advances in health care, I still consider good information to be
the best medicine." Dr. DeBakey emphasized this same point
this past spring in testimony before a Capitol Hill appropriations
subcommittee.
Harold Varmus, M.D., Director of the National
Institutes of Health, applauded free access and observed it would
have the additional benefit of proving the nation's scientific
literacy. "The press briefing will demonstrate how the
public, including high school and college science classes, will be
able to search through MEDLINE and the Human Gene Map, another one
of NLM's Web-based databases, and learn about inherited diseases
that are located on our chromosomes -- in terms that the public
can understand. No longer will the public be left in the dark as
this fascinating and historic human genome research process
unfolds."
"The medical library community is
pleased that this vast treasure trove of medical knowledge will be
opened up to the general public," said Rachel K. Anderson,
President of the Medical Library Association. "Patients and
their families are regularly turning to health sciences librarians
to find reliable health information. Free MEDLINE means that we
can now provide consumers with better access to the quality
information they need, and librarians can help them to tap into
the full power of this authoritative source."
To
demonstrate the value this new service will have for consumers and
health professionals, the press briefing will bring together a
sampling of Americans whose stories are compelling examples of how
access to MEDLINE and other sources of medical information from
the Library positively touched their lives. Among those who will
provide written or oral statements are:
A
Pennsylvania book editor who went online to learn about
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and to find a clinical trial for her
daughter, a University of Iowa student, who was diagnosed with
the disease;
A
Maryland pharmacist who had six miscarriages before she consulted
MEDLINE, found a treatment, and carried a baby successfully to
term;
A
Connecticut librarian who searched MEDLINE for a doctor who was
concerned about hospitals performing mastectomies on an
out-patient basis for insurance purposes. Her search resulted in
a reversal of such insurance policies;
A New
York police officer who searched MEDLINE to recover important
information for three relatives with cancer -- his wife,
father-in-law, and aunt. He now trains other officers in the use
of MEDLINE;
A
Virginia couple whose 6-month search of medical literature
resulted in treatment for their son's rare inherited disease -- a
search that became immortalized in the movie "Lorenzo's
Oil";
A District of Columbia director of
an AIDS advocacy group that uses AIDSLINE, an NLM database that
is already free to the public.
Other individuals, from throughout the
United States, will be available for comment by contacting the
NLM.
The web
address for the National Library of Medicine is:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov.
On June 26, this site will display free MEDLINE. Press will also
be invited to view a demonstration of "PubMed" -- a new
free NLM online service that will allow the public to establish
direct web links between MEDLINE abstracts and the publishers of
the full-text articles. This new service is the result of a
collaboration between the NLM and major science publishers such as
the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Journal of
Biological Chemistry, and The Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
Information
Technology and the Wealth of Nations
From:
"EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List"
<edupage@educom.unc.edu>
FCC
Chairman Reed Hundt says that the information revolution is the
key to increasing world wealth. "If it's possible to have the
information revolution lead to a general elevation in world wealth
and a better distribution of that wealth, then this is a very
important thing...People will vote on the Internet, get an
education on the Internet ... watch TV on computers, look for jobs
on the Internet and just plain work on the Internet.
Communications technology will alter everyday living from dawn to
dusk, top to bottom." What should countries do to get richer
faster? "Deregulate like crazy... Those countries that adopt
the competitive model more quickly will be the ones that get
richer faster." (AP 25 Jun 97)
MEETINGS
AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
See the informatics section
of NetVet for a more complete and current list of
informatics-related activities at
<http://netvet.wustl.edu/info.htm>
June 16
- August 9; July 14 - September 6; August 11 - October 3
Make
the Link Workshop (World Wide Web for Everyone)
(See the
May-June, 1997 AVI Newsletter for details)
August
14-16, 1997; Newcastle, Australia
6th
International Conference on Health and Medical Informatics
Education
(See the May-June, 1997 AVI Newsletter for
details)
August 23-29,
1997
15th International Joint
Conference on Artificial Intelligence; Nagoya, Japan
(See the
Jan-Feb, 1997 AVI Newsletter for details)
September
4-6, 1997
GEOMED '97; Rostock,
Germany
(See the Jan-Feb, 1997 AVI Newsletter for
details)
September 10-14,
1997
Veterinary Informatics at
the 5th World Equine Veterinary Association; Padova, Italy
(See
the July-August, 1996 AVI Newsletter for details)
October
4-7, 1997
NAWEB97: Web Course
Developers Conference; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
(See
the May-June, 1997 AVI Newsletter for details)
SUGGESTED
READING
The
"BOOK" (You'll definitely want one of these!)
Posted
to AVI-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU
by "Dale M. Cooper"
<coope019@MAROON.TC.UMN.EDU>
Announcing
the new Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device, otherwise
known as the BOOK.
It's a revolutionary breakthrough in
technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing
to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child
can operate it. Just lift its cover. Compact and portable, it can
be used anywhere-even sitting in an armchair by the fire -- yet it
is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM
disk.
Here's how it works: each BOOK is constructed of
sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable
of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are
locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which
keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. By using both sides of
each sheet, manufacturers are able to cut costs in half.
Each
sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into
your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The
BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it.
The "Browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any
sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Most come with an
"index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of
any selected information for instant retrieval.
An
optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open the
BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session-even if
the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design
standards; thus a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various
manufacturers.
Portable, durable and affordable, the BOOK
is the entertainment wave of the future, and many new titles are
expected soon, due to the surge in popularity of its programming
tool, the Portable Erasable-Nib Cryptic Intercommunication
Language stylus [PENCIL].
CLOSING
BITS
Twenty
Signs You've Been on the Net Too Long
From:
Greg Prater <gprater@eastky.com>
You wake
up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom and stop to check your e-mail
on the way back to bed.
You get a
tattoo that reads "This body best viewed with Netscape
Navigator 1.1 or higher."
You name
your children Eudora, Mozillia and Dotcom.
You spend
half of the plane trip with your laptop on your lap...and your
child in the overhead compartment.
You
decide to stay in college for an additional year or two, just for
the free Internet access.
You laugh
at people with 9600-baud modems.
You start
using smileys in your snail mail.
Your hard
drive crashes. You haven't logged in for two hours. You start to
twitch. You pick up the phone and manually dial your ISP's access
number. You try to hum to communicate with the modem. ...And you
succeed.
You find
yourself typing "com" after every period when using a
word processor.com
You refer
to going to the bathroom as downloading.
You start
introducing yourself as "JohnDoe at AOL dot com."
All of
your friends have an @ in their names.
Your cat
has its own home page.
You can't
call your mother...she doesn't have a modem.
You check
your mail. It says "no new messages." So you check it
again.
Your
phone bill comes to your doorstep in a box.
You don't
know what sex three of your closest friends are, because they
have neutral nicknames and you never bothered to ask.
You move
into a new house and decide to Netscape before you landscape.
You tell
the cab driver you live at
"http://1000.edison.garden/house/brick.html."
You start tilting your head sideways
to smile.
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