Association for
Veterinary Informatics
NEWSLETTER

May - June, 1998

Charles A. Cohen (Branford, CT) - President; Robin Starr-Chichester (Conifer, CO) - President Elect, James T. Case (UC-Davis) - Secretary Treasurer; Ronald D. Smith (Illinois) - Newsletter Editor

IN THIS ISSUE

ASSOCIATION NEWS
- How to Contact AVI
1998 RICHARD B. TALBOT VETERINARY INFORMATICS SYMPOSIUM
PRODUCTS & REVIEWS
INTERNET RESOURCES
NEWS & COMMENTARY
MEETINGS & EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
SUGGESTED READING
CLOSING BITS

ASSOCIATION NEWS

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

Membership application forms are available online at:

http://netvet.wustl.edu/avi.htm

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:

http://netvet.wustl.edu/avi.htm.

1998 Richard B. Talbot
Veterinary Informatics Symposium

Three Day Program of Presentations
"Improving Patient Care with Informatics"

Saturday, July 25th
Presiding Officer / Moderator: Duane Steward, DVM, MSIE, Fellow AAVI
Allied Group Co-Sponsor - Association for Veterinary Informatics
Commercial Co-Sponsors - Idexx Informatics, Remote Veterinary Consultants, DVM Communications

8:00-8:15am Introduction & Presidential Address
Duane Steward, DVM, MSIE; Chuck Cohen, DVM - AVI President

8:15-8:50am "Multiple Site Medical Records over the Web: Problems Solved and Problems Exposed in Sharing Data"
Isaac S. Kohane, MD, PhD

8:55-9:30am "Image Guided Surgery -- Seeing Where You are Going Before You Get There"
W. Eric L. Grimson, PhD

10:15-10:45am "Computer Interface Device for Catheter Procedures Instruction and Monitoring"
Stephen Dubin, VMD, PhD

10:45-11:45am Keynote Address: "At the Envelope: Can Technology and Logic Help?"
Steve Pauker, MD, MACP, FACC
Commercial Co-Sponsor - Idexx Informatics
Presiding Officer/Moderator: Craig Carter, DVM, MS, PhD.

1:00-1:30pm "Online Veterinary Communities: The Glue that Bonds Us Together"
Paul D. Pion, DVM, DACVIM

1:30-2:00pm "Integration of Veterinary Clinical Decision Support Systems with the Electronic Patient Record - Challenges and Benefits"
Craig N. Carter, DVM, PhD

2:00-2:30pm "Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Decision Analysis for Veterinarians"
Duane Steward, DVM, MSIE

3:15-3:45pm "The Patient Information Acquisition Model: A Framework for Identifying Causes of Missing or Inaccurate Information"
Eric (Rick) M. Mills, DVM, PhD

3:45-4:15pm "The Use of an Apple(R) Messagepad 2000 in an Integrated Veterinary Invoicing and Medical Records Keeping System"
William B. Ley, DVM, MS

4:15-4:45pm "CLINIPHARM: A Computer-Based Drug and Poison Information System for Veterinarians"
Daniel Christian Demuth, DVM, PhD

Sunday, July 26th
Morning AVI Working Groups
Business Luncheon
Presiding Officer/ Moderator: Robin Starr, DVM, President Elect, AVI

1:00-1:20pm "Comparing Rule Based and Neural Network Based Knowledge Systems"
Allen W. Hahn, DVM, PhD, ACVIM (Cardiology)

1:20-1:40pm "The Use Claris Filemaker(R) Pro to Maintain and Deliver Preventive Medicine and Herd Health Information for Both Restricted and Public Use Over Intra- and Internet Networks"
William B. Ley, DVM, MS

1:40-2:00pm "Web Access to Referred Case Clinical Information"
Paul R. Brentson, MBA; James Allen Self

2:00-2:20pm "Word Search Performance of Free-Text Electronic Patient Records by Surgical Diagnoses in a Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital Clinical Database"
Leah Estberg, DVM, PhD

3:15-3:35pm "The Impact of Information Derived from a Search of an Electronic Bibliographic Database on Veterinary Clinical Decision Making: The Information Search Process"
Elizabeth T. Hewins, MSLIS, PhD

3:35-3:55pm "Solving the Technician Shortage Via Distance Education"
Guy Hancock, DVM, MEd

3:55-4:15pm "The Virtual Veterinary Patient as a CE `Tool' "
Cheryl Dhein, DVM, MS, ACVIM

4:15-4:35pm "An Interactive Multimedia Program on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in the Dog and Cat"
Al Jergens, DVM, MS

4:35-4:55pm "Teaching Animal Intensive Laboratories Without Animals : Development of a Win 32 Application to Teach the Principles of Mechanical Ventilation"
Robert D. Keegan, DVM, Diplomate ACVA

Monday, July 27th: "Telemedicine: Networking Resources for Improved Veterinary Patient Care"

Allied Group Co-Sponsor - Association for Veterinary Informatics
Commercial Co-Sponsors - Remote Veterinary Consultants, DVM Communications

8:00-8:30am "Digitizing Case Material. What it Takes and What it Makes"
Peter K Shires, BVSc, MS, ACVS

8:30-9:00am "One-Way Telemedicine for Clinical Pathology Consultation"
Charles E. Branch, BME, PhD; Joseph S. Spano, DVM, PhD

9:00-9:30am "World Class Digitized Image Transfer, Keeping Pace with Radiologists
Sean Doyle

10:15-10:45am "Internet Based Image Management and Communications"
Marc Karyo, MAIT

10:45-11:15am "How Telemedicine Will Assist the Daily Practice Routine"
T. Arch Robertson, DVM

11:15-11:45 "Telemedicine at the New England Medical Center"
John B Wong, MD, FACP

1:00-1:30pm Live Teleconsult with the New England Medical Center and other veterinary centers.
John B Wong, MD, FACP; Duane Steward, DVM, MSIE; T. Arch Robertson, DVM; Marc Karyo, MAIT

1:30-2:30pm Multiple Workstations for Hands on Experience; including teleradiology, telesonsography, telecytology, document camera, teleoto-ophthalmology, etc.
Remote Veterinary Consultants, T. Arch Robertson, DVM; DVM Communications, Marc Karyo, MAIT

2:45-3:15pm "Telemedicine: What's in it for Practitioners?"
Marc Papageorges, DVM, MS, PhD

3:15-4:15pm Tough Questions: A Panel of the day's speakers addresssing and fielding questions on the tough issues. All the day's speakers plus invited referral hospital department heads weathered by efforts to establish telemedicine services.
Duane Steward, DVM, MSIE presiding.

Computer Wet Lab

Cheryl Dhein, DVM, MS, ACVIM (Computer Wet Lab Captain)
Charles E. Branch, BME, PhD
Joseph S. Spano, DVM, PhD
Lab Facilities Sponsored by Remote Veterinary Consultants

Sunday Afternoon, July 26th - 1.5 hours (twice offered)
Basic Lab on Accessing the Internet and the World Wide Web
This computer laboratory is intended for those who have little or no experience using the Internet.

Topics will include:
1. What is needed to get connected to the Internet.
2. The basics of using e-mail including how to subscribe to Internet based discussion groups.
3. The basics of Web browsing including a tour of popular Veterinary Web sites.
4. Using the Web to perform veterinary medical searches.

Monday Afternoon, July 27th - 1.5 hours (twice offered)
This computer laboratory is intended for those who have some previous experience using computers for word processing. In this laboratory participants will learn the basic skills of creating a Web page using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web editor.

Topics include:
1. Setting the appearance of Web pages
2. Building tables
3. Inserting images
4. Editing images
5. Creating links
6. Creating Image maps
7. Getting your Web pages to the Internet

Poster Presentions

Saturday, July 25th
* Who is Richard B. Talbot?
AVMA Informatics Committee
* "Information Technology in the Diagnostic Laboratory: Use of Spreadsheets, Databases, and the World Wide Web to Support Technicians, Nurses, and Doctors in Daily Practice"
Chuck Cohen, DVM
* "An Independent Formulation of Disease Theory for Computer
R D C Miller, BVM&S, PhD
* "VETPLUS-L, A Continuous International Veterinary Meeting"
Jeff Parke, DVM, MS and Allan Berger, DVM
* Case Based Problem Solving on the Computer. To Err is Not to Maime"
Peter K Shires, BVSc, MS, Diplomate ACVS
* "Outbreak Investigation Exercises on the World Wide Web"
Ronald D. Smith, DVM, MS, PhD
* "Systematic Approaches to Determining the Values of Patient Outcomes"
Duane Steward, DVM, MSIE, Fellow AAVI

Sunday, July 26th
* Who is Richard B. Talbot?
AVMA Informatics Committee

* "Evolution of a Comprehensive Electronic Medical Record"
Paul Brentson, MBA, Jim Self, MA, and W J Hornof, DVM

* "Vertical Integration in a Horizontal Veterinary Curriculum (subtitle: The Urinary System: A Bridge over Yellow Waters)"
Cheryl R Dhein, DVM, MS

* "A Web Based Approach to Seamless Linking of Textual Reports to Medical Images in a Hospital Information"
W J Hornof, DVM;, D W Ballance; Jim Self, MA and Paul Brentson, MBA

* "The Development and Implementation of the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital Information System (THIS)"
Harriet Mermes, et al

* "Rapid Retrieval of Pertinent Cases in a Free-text Environment"
James A Self, MA; Paul Brentson, MBA; and W J Hornof, DVM

* "Veterinary Medical PATIENT CARE (Problem-based Access Tool for Interactive Evaluation Network of Teaching Cases to Assure Relevant Education)"
Kristine Tischer, BS, MA, DVM

PRODUCTS & REVIEWS

Inquiry/ Announcement-Bovine Reproduction Update Information Source
From: "Kent Higgins" <KH-REPROTECH@zianet.com>

Announcing the introduction of a comprehensive citation update pertaining to bovine reproduction in late May of 1998. This printed compilation of literature citations is limited to those involving cattle and will be offered quarterly initially,and more often if demand dictates. It will be useful to researchers, academicians,large animal veterinary practitioners, Ag/Bio/Science librarians, and those who offer embryo transfer/AI services in this species. This publication includes annotative summaries for each citation and coverage is very broad and comprehensive. If you would like further info about Bovine Reproduction Update, please e-mail at the following address. Thank you.

Kent Higgins
Reprotech
Las Cruces,New Mexico
E-mail: KH-REPROTECH@zianet.com

VET CABWeb and VET ACCESS
From: "Robert Taylor (TL, Ani. Hlth.)" <R.TAYLOR@CABI.ORG>

VET CABWeb and VET ACCESS - new veterinary information services from CAB INTERNATIONAL

CAB INTERNATIONAL is pleased to announce that two new services for veterinary information VET CABWeb and VET ACCESS, will be available from January 1998. VET CABWeb will provide Internet access to six of CABI's key abstract journals in veterinary science, at no additional charge to members of organizations which are current subscribers of those journals.

If your library has a subscription to any of the following journals in 1998, you will be eligible for free access to those same journals over the Internet:

Veterinary Bulletin
Index Veterinarius
Review of Medical and Veterinary Entomology Review of Medical and Veterinary Mycology Protozoological Abstracts
Helminthological Abstracts

In addition to the journal content, VET CABWeb will also contain useful information for users of our veterinary science publications and products, new book announcements, details of new products and services, CABI editorial policy and lists of serials scanned, and links to other veterinary resources and society information on the Internet. There will also be "Spotlight on" section which focuses on hot topics of the moment.

Each abstract journal will be enhanced with an archive of at least 1 yearÉs references. VET CABWeb is provided with WebSPIRS software.

Access is only possible from a registered PC or terminal, so any user wishing to use the service must make sure their IP (network) addresses are registered before access can be granted. Ideally, the librarian should register on behalf of the whole institution.

Registration forms are now available on the VET CABWeb homepage at:

http://vet.cabweb.org/

and from the CABI offices (details below).

Members of organizations which are current subscribers to VETCD or CAB CD may access VET CABWeb journals at a reduced price, with additional discounts available for multiple titles.

If you do not subscribe to any of CABI journals or CD-ROMs, Internet-only subscriptions are offered at the same cost of a printed subscription.

VET ACCESS is a new current awareness service available as part of VET CABWeb, providing a WEEKLY updated database of the latest veterinary literature covered by all of the top veterinary, veterinary parasitology, and animal science journals. Over 350 new references will appear in VET ACCESS each week, and a searchable archive of 3 months references will be included at all times.

VET ACCESS is available to subscribers of any of the VET CABWeb journals for only $50/$90 a year or as a separate subscription for only $80/$145 a year.

The VET CABWeb site, with a sample database, can now be visited on the Internet at

http://vet.cabweb.org/

For more information about these services, contact:

Tania Fisher, Product Manager, Animal Science CAB INTERNATIONAL, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8DE, UK Tel: +44 (0)1491 832111; Fax: +44 (0)1491 826090;
E-mail: t.fisher@cabi.org
or
Pam Sherman, Marketing Manager
CAB INTERNATIONAL, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY10016, USA
Tel: + 1 212 726 6490; Toll free: 800 528 4841; Fax: +1 212 686 7993;
E-mail: cabi-nao@cabi.org

Subscriptions to The Online Journal of Veterinary Research
From: "Vincent Guerrini" <csvguerr@uq.net.au>

The Online Journal of Veterinary Research (OJVR) is an electronic fulltext-peer reviewed Veterinary Journal on the Internet with a fully qualified editorial doctoral board. Recent original research articles:

"Does fasting in pregnant sheep cause a syndrome analogous to human preeclampsia?" by S Calvin MD and C Wolf DVM.

Ref:

http://www.cpb.uokhsc.edu/ojvr/jvet196a.htm (main)

http://www.cpb.uokhsc.edu/ojvr/subs.htm (subscriptions)

Sincerely,
Vincent H Guerrini DVM, MMedVet, PhD
Online Journal of Veterinary Research

PorkNet -- New Website for the Pork Industry
From: "Dr. Tom Stein" <stein056%GOLD.TC.UMN.EDU@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>

http://www.porknet.com

Like most of agriculture, the pork industry's biggest information challenge is too much information, too disorganized, and too hard to find. It simply takes too much time to find good, solid, useful information.

Our goal is to change information frustration into an "information epiphany" (to paraphrase Joseph Campbell) by creating one-stop information shopping for anyone participating in or interested in the pork industry. Our promise is that you will find whatever you're looking for at this site - if it's not there, we will find it, get it, and put it online.

You'll find five sections available now, with more to come

1. What's New / Industry News
2. SmartPork Reference Library
3. Discussion Forums
4. What's Coming
5. Web Links

The What's New / Industry News area is our everyday guide and message board from us to you. We track interesting, important, or useful news items and press releases, as well as act as your guide to our site. Some news items have 'related information' hyperlinks into our SmartPork Reference Library. And some have Web links to further information or a full article posted on another Web site.

PorkNet's key driver is the SmartPork Reference Library. It's our proprietary knowledgebase - about 30,000 articles (and growing weekly!) on pork production, industry analysis, market analysis, management, etc. We've included over 1200 sources to build this database, and we update it weekly. Sources include:

* Scientific literature (over 800 scientific publications tracking agriculture, livestock production, animal science, animal health and veterinary medicine, and business management and economics).
* Trade magazines (like Feedstuffs, Hogs Today, National Hog Farmer, Pork, and Pig International).

* Proceedings from meetings, symposia, and congresses (like the American Association of Swine Practitioners, Leman Swine Conference, George A Young Swine Conference, International Pig Veterinary Society Congress, Iowa State Swine Disease Conference, and many others)

* Consumer and business publications (like Newsweek, Time, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and local/regional newspapers).

* USDA, Agricultural Experiment Station, and Land-Grant University reports and publications.

Subscribers can search and download abstracts and summaries. Subscribers can also e-mail us and ask us to do the search for them, or to send them full-text copies of articles they are interested in. If we haven't posted an article's summary, subscribers can e-mail, fax or phone us and we will summarize the article, post it online, and send them summaries by e-mail, fax, or mail.

Within the SmartPork knowledgebase, we have an "Author's Comments" section and a "Reader's Comments" section. For each article in the knowledgebase, authors will be able to comment on what they published, why, what has changed since the original publication came out, and so on.

Also, for each article readers will be able to make comments on what they have read. We expect readers to say things like whether they think the information is valuable or not, why they think its valuable, suggestions on other papers that they believe are related to or provide further information on the particular topic or topics dealt with in the particular article, etc, etc, etc. There will be one (or a few) authors' comments but - we hope - many reader comments.

Our goal is to support your research process. You know how it works - you find an article you're interested in, then you check the references, then go to some of those references and see what they have to say, then go to more references, and finally you've collected the core information about the subject you're interested in.

We will support your research process by providing hyperlinked references (for articles that have references) along with hyperlinked "related information" jumps to articles within the SmartPork Reference Library. And we will even provide hyperlinks to articles that have referenced the one you're interested in - a "referenced by" link, for lack of a better word.

In our Discussion Forums, you can add questions or comments to any number of threaded discussion groups. We will archive all questions and answers. We expect that this will grow into a substantial resource as more and more subscribers build their own questions, answers, comments, and related information into the Forum areas.

The What's Coming area lists the major upcoming events for the worldwide pork industry. We've included trade shows, scientific meetings, producer meetings, international congresses and symposia, etc. We also list release dates for important reports (like the USDA reports) and deadlines (like public comment periods for proposed legislation). Along with the listing, you'll find contact information (persons, addresses, phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and - if it exists - links to the event's Website.

With thousands of hyperlinks to worldwide sites related to the pork industry, our Web Links section will soon become the talk of the industry and a 'can't live without' service. We have taken a very focused approach to these links, categorizing them to make it easier to find exactly what you're looking for without having to jump all over the Web (Our mission - collapse time by making our site a one-stop information environment).

Not only do we link to resources within the pork industry, we have links to the food industry, online shopping, stock market resources for the food industry, companies and their investment analysis (including stock price charts), news sources, search engines, and more.

And for your Web linking pleasure - and to make life easier - we also have the option of doing a Yahoo-type search within our Web links to find just what you're looking for.

We are offering a one-month free trial subscription. We want you to use PorkNet long-enough to see whether it has enough value to you that it's worth the subscription price. We offer two subscription types. One is a month-by-month basis, for maximum flexibility. The other is an annual, for best price.

Check it out, and let me know what you think. If you want to see additional features or functions, pass those requests on to me at <tomstein@porknet.com> or my personal e-mail address listed above.

If you have articles you'd like us to put in the knowledgebase, e-mail us with those. Same thing for favorite or useful Web sites and upcoming meetings.

What we want to see is a user-driven, sophisticated, highly detailed and complete Web site for the pork industry. We believe we're providing the foundation. Now it will be up to you to help make it happen. For more information, go to the site <www.porknet.com> or read the reply to this e-mail, where I go into more details about what's on the site.

Thanks! Let me know what you think of PorkNet!

Tom Stein, DVM, MS, PhD
Knowledgeworks, Inc.
E-mail: tomstein@porknet.com

INTERNET RESOURCES

WWW GovBot
From: "Ken Boschert" <ken%dcm.wustl.edu@WUVMD.Wustl.Edu>

A new Web resource that's quite good is GovBot, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The database has cataloged over 500,000 government web pages and has a decent search engine. I found around 2000 veterinary related and 3000 animal related pages referenced there.

http://cobar.cs.umass.edu/ciirdemo/Govbot/

MedIntranet - Using Intranets & Extranets to Deliver Medical Care
From: "NEW-LIST - New List Announcements" <NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU>

http://www.managedcaremag.com/medintranet.html

The MedIntranet list is a moderated discussion list for those developing and using Intranets/ Extranets to coordinate and deliver medical care.

Topics for discussion include (but are not limited to): patient records, prescriptions, claims, security, privacy, patient education, care management. For vendors and users, covering business and technical issues.

Sponsored by Managed Care magazine.
Owner: Philip Denlinger philip@managedcaremag.com
List Manager

WWW Clientremind.com
From: "Ken Boschert" <ken%dcm.wustl.edu@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>

A different kind of veterinary website that may be of interest to some folks....it's called Clientremind.com

http://www.clientremind.com/

I know there are many standalone client reminder software packages, but what this site basically provides is a way to e-mail appointment reminders to clients via the web. Your mileage may vary, but it is unique, to my knowledge....at least it's fun to see how resourceful and innovative folks can be with the Internet and I enjoy seeing sites that cater to the profession....there are some samples available on the site if you want to give it a try. Ken

CDC Parasitology Diagnostic Website
From: "Nguyen-Dinh, Phuc" <ppn1@cdc.gov>

CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases has established on the Internet a website for diagnosis of parasitic diseases. The website, named "DPDx", is at

http://www.ncid.cdc.gov/dpdx

and offers two complementary functions:

A "Reference and Training" function, in which all users can browse through concise reviews of parasites and parasitic diseases; this also includes an image library and a review of recommended procedures for collecting, shipping, processing, and examining biologic specimens; all material is free of copyright and users are welcome to store and copy material as they wish.

A "Diagnostic Assistance" function, in which registered users (mostly laboratorians and other health professionals) desiring assistance in parasite identification can ask questions, request information, and send digital images of specimens for expedited review and consultation by DPD staff; this assistance is free of charge.

The website aims at using the Internet to strengthen the diagnosis of parasitic diseases. The Internet is well suited for that purpose because of its inherent qualities (imaging capabilities; global, rapid, interactive exchanges; flexibility of content). Interested parasitologists and other health professionals are invited to participate in the DPDx network. They can either contribute their material/ experience to build up DPDx, or use the DPDx services, or both.

How to contact DPDx: Messages can be sent by clicking on the "Contact Us" buttons found on most pages of the DPDx website: a pre-addressed email frame will automatically appear, use it to send an email to DPDx. Alternatively, send an e-mail to <dpdx@cdc.gov> or to the DPDx contact person at <ppn1@cdc.gov>.

Phuc Nguyen-Dinh
Division of Parasitic Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
E-mail: ppn1@cdc.gov
Tel: 770-4884435
Fax: 770-4884253

NEWS & COMMENTARY

DVM News Online Update
From: "Lynne Brakeman" <lbrakeman%ADVANSTAR.COM@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>

The latest update to DVM News Online is now available. Breaking News, New Product Spotlights, Links, and Calendar have all been updated.

Be sure and check out this month's News Alert about a live satellite video conference on recognition, treatment and prevention of allergies to latex and natural rubber. Over the past decade, the FDA has received more than 1,700 reports of severe allergic reactions to latex, including 16 deaths.

In addition, Dr. Mike Obenski's popular humor column has been updated with three new (but really old) columns. Where were *you* in 1988? Dr. Obenski was exercising his sardonic humor for DVM Newsmagazine.

Visit us at:

http://www.dvmnewsmagazine.com

Please stop by for a visit and let us know what you think.

Sincerely,
Lynne Brakeman
Web Editor
DVM Newsmagazine
E-mail: <lbrakeman@advanstar.com>

Computer Requirement for Incoming Students
From: "Edupage Editors" <educom@listserv.oit.unc.edu>

Laptops Required of Incoming Freshmen:
Freshmen entering the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000 will be required to have laptop computers. Students can either bring their own laptop (if it meets proper specifications) or buy the machines themselves through Student Stores on campus. The university will offer low-interest, four-year loans for students who wish to finance the purchase, and will increase its financial aid budget to provide needy students with additional grant assistance to help cover the cost of the laptops. Some of the other institutions that require or will soon require students to have laptop computers are Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Carnegie-Mellon, Virginia Tech, and Western Carolina University.

You Can Use a Laptop, You Can Use a Desktop:
Georgia Tech's computer requirement for freshmen was stated incorrectly in the announcement cited in our last issue, which said that Tech requires students to own laptops; Georgia Tech has corrected the report, saying it permits students to choose either laptop OR desktop machines. (Our own guess, though it's just a guess, is that Georgia Tech policy allows students to bring laptops to class but not desktops.)

EDUCOM Publishes Standards for Digital Labels
From: "Chronicle of Higher Education"

10 Apr 98
Educom has devised a set of digital labels, called metatags, that can be embedded in educational documents, making it easier for search engines to find them on the Web. The metatag specifications are posted on the Instructional Management Systems Web site:

http://www.imsproject.org

and documents containing metatags will provide information about the page's contents, its title and publisher, and when it became available online, among other things. The tags could also include information such as whether a license is required to use a particular software program. The introduction of metatags will enable computer companies to build educational software around a common labeling standard.

New URL for VIE website at Glasgow/Strathclyde
From: "Tom Irwin" <t.irwin%UDCF.GLA.AC.UK@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>

The World Wide Web pages for Veterinary Informatics and Epidemiology at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde have moved to:

http://www.vie.gla.ac.uk/

replacing the previous URL

http://www.gla.ac.uk/Acad/Vet/VIE/

The VIE server is also host to the WWW pages for:
* The Home of Rest for Horses

http://www.vie.gla.ac.uk/hrh/

* The Donkey Sanctuary

http://www.vie.gla.ac.uk/donkey/

* The Weipers Centre for Equine Welfare

http://www.vie.gla.ac.uk/wcew/

Please update your links.

Update on CONVINCE Web Site
From: "Jeff Wilcke" <jwilcke%VT.EDU@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>

Just a note to let you know that the CONVINCE (Consortium of North American Veterinary Interactive New Concept Education) web site has moved (new server, new campus same old http://www.convince.org). The Veterinary Informatics Program at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine was awarded a grant to host the site and develop it further. The primary change in the site is the addition of a searchable database of veterinary teaching software.

Beyond simply informing you of the site change, I would like to encourage the users of this list to assist us in developing the database into a resource that will not only provide valuable information to faculty at our veterinary colleges but also advance the cause of veterinary informatics by promoting awareness of the efforts of our colleagues who have developed useful teaching tools.

To that end (and if you can spare the time) I would appreciate your comments and contributions to the site and specifically to the database:

1) If you have developed, own, or know of teaching software that you think should be part of our collection, please let us know. We are also including links to interactive teaching materials ON THE WEB.

2) If you have specific comments about our approach to searching this database (interface, search strategy, etc.) please let us know.

Thanks for your time and continued interest in veterinary informatics!

Jeff R. Wilcke, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVCP Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
jwilcke@vt.edu
(540)231-4819 (Office)
(540)231-4427 (Lab)
(540)231-7367 (Fax)

Online Journals and Free Online Medline
From: "Phil Rogers" <AAVLD-L@cvdls-l.ucdavis.edu>

Hi All,
Many thanks to Tom Pringle, of the BSE-List, for bringing LANCET Interactive to our attention.

Scientific journals are starting to go online with FULL TEXT articles. One of the latest is the LANCET Interactive. That online journal is magnificent. It is a great demonstration of the way scientific info will go in the future.

Please check out LANCET Interactive, and have a good look around that site at:

http://www.thelancet.com/cgibin/newlancet/sub/pg_jnl.c?

See especially its SEARCH ENGINE. This allows you to locate quickly and easily any "string" which appears anywhere in the current issue. Also check out the download facility for any article(s) there of interest to you.

In future, efficient searches for scientific info (say on medical / veterinary / animal health issues) will combine ONLINE FULL-TEXT JOURNALS (which may be FREE, or paid by annual subscription, or by the number of pages to be downloaded) with FREE ONLINE ABSTRACT DATABASES, such as PubMed Medline at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/medline.html

PubMed Medline is an awesome resource for clinicians and researchers. Though nominally a "medical" database, it contains abstracts on many aspects of animal/veterinary research and diseases. Having used Medline for nearly a year now, I found that it has been able to locate titles and abstracts on >90% of any veterinary topics for which I needed to search.

Medline is especially useful for clinicians and researchers interested in minority specialties, such as acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic etc. Practitioners of those disciplines often feel isolated. Via Medline and specialist email discussion groups, those interested in complementary medicine (and veterinary medicine) can keep "up-to-the-minute" on current developments in their fields.

One may propose three main implications of such technology for the future:

1. We can expect rapid decrease in the importance of having multiple duplicates of hard-copies of hundreds of rarely-read journals in several dozen poorly-maintained sites across the country. The era of poorly-maintained local libraries is coming to a close

2. When will the State insist that large organisations, such as the Depts. of Health, Agriculture and the Marine, the Universities, Hospitals, Teagasc, County Councils etc MUST COMBINE their LIBRARY RESOURCES? There is great logic in the STATE taking out ONE NATIONAL paid subscription to the main scientific journals and databases (medical, veterinary, agricultural, engineering etc), with the hub being (say) the NATIONAL LIBRARY. From their PCs, all authorised staff (researchers, teachers, scientists, managers etc) in any interested bodies could then "hook-into" that central hub for rapid access to any info in the system.

3. With the spread of Internet and e-mail internationally, we can expect to see rapid development in the transfer of information on complementary and alternative medicine both within the professions, but also to the general population. Orthodox (conventional) authorities, who have remained largely unchallenged before now, are in for a rough ride with the easy transfer of information, and the anarchic nature of the Internet.

MEETINGS & 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

A New Distance Learning Course in Medical Informatics
From: "Donald Parsons" <dfp10@telemed.wadsworth.org>

The School Of Public Health, Department of Biometry and Statistics, of the University at Albany, Albany NY, is pleased to announce:

A new distance learning course in:
Introductory Medical Informatics (MI)

http://www.albany.edu/medical_informatics/

The Topic: Medical Informatics (MI) is the science of computer optimization of the transfer and interpretation of clinical data. It has a special emphasis on analyzing and supporting the medical decision-making process.
MI provides an opportunity for students with diverse backgrounds (public health, medical students and residents, nurses, computer science, business computer science, administrators, physicists, engineers, etc) to work in the field of clinical medicine. Technical detail has been reduced in this course to suit a broad audience.
Topics covered are: computers in medicine, Bayesian probability for diagnosis, decision trees, clinical knowledge bases, Decision Support Systems (DSS), medical data and computerized medical records, searching and data-mining of very large databases (including medical literature databases), Hospital Information Systems (HIS) and clinical Laboratory Information Systems (LIS), county health department WWW communications, telemedicine, tele-radiology and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), medical use of the Internet, Medical Artificial Intelligence (MAI), expert systems, patient monitoring systems, Nursing Informatics, information processing in infectious diseases, health care outcomes analysis, and Computer Aided Instruction (CAI).

The Distance Learning Course: The home page gives access to all the "Chapters". It is also a Medical Informatics News and Resources page for postings about New York State, national, and international MI information (including grant opportunities, job listings, conferences, papers, books, new WWW sites, and mail lists. Send this material to the Maintainer, Donald F.Parsons MD, PhD <dfp10@telemed.albany.edu>.
There is world access for the home page and for the fist two chapters of the course (michap1.html and michap2.html). If you wish to read the remaining chapters (michap3.html to michap12.html), to take the two tests and final exam, and to get 3 credits, you will need to register with University at Albany. Send e-mail to Dr. Helga Straif-Taylor <hstraif@cnsvax.albany.edu> who will send you a user-name and a password when your registration is completed.
Anyone, anywhere in the world, may participate. No Instructor permission is needed. You can take the course in your spare time and at your own pace. Whan ready for the Test #1 (covering michap1-4), or Test #2 (covering michap5-8), or the Final Exam (covering all chapters) send an e-mail request to D.F. Parsons.

The recommended textbook is "Introduction to Clinical Informatics," by P. Degoulet and M. Fieschi. Springer Verlag, 1997. ISBN 0-387-94641-1
Good Luck and enjoy the course!
Don Parsons

IMIA Conference on Electronic Patient Records
From: "EPRiMP Secreteriat" <eprimp@mi.fgg.eur.nl>

1st announcement and call for contributions to EPRiMP: Electronic Patient Records in Medical Practice

EPRiMP is a joint conference of:
Working Group 17 on Electronic Patient Records of IMIA, EMD '98, and EUROREC '98.

EPRiMP will be held from October 7th - 10th 1998, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Prior to the conference there will be workshops on:

* Ethical constraints on the flow of medical data
* Introducing electronic patient records in clinical settings, and
* Terminology and the architecture of the Electronic Patient Record.

Submissions to the conference and/or workshops should be sent by April 1, in the form of extended abstracts, to <EPRiMP@mi.fgg.eur.nl.>

For full conference details see:

http://www.eur.nl/fgg/mi/eprimp/

WG 17 and EPRiMP / EMD 98 Secreteriat
Dept. Medical Informatics, Room Ee2100
Erasmus University Rotterdam
PO Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Tel +31 10 408 7050
Fax +31 10 436 2882

PhD Studentship Opportunity
From: "Ian Jackson" <Ian.Jackson@hgu.mrc.ac.uk>

Medical Research Council and Glaxo-Wellcome Collaborative Studentship in Bioinformatics

The MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh has a collaborative studentship available for research in bioinformatics aspects of a 3D Internet accessible database being developed to provide molecular biologists with a resource for mapping, collating and querying gene-expression and other spatially organised data. This is a collaborative studentship with Glaxo-Wellcome and will involve the successful candidate undertaking part of the work at the Glaxo-Wellcome research site in Stevenage. The ideal candidate will have an honours degree (1 or 2.1) in a numerate science, computing or informatics with a strong interest in image analysis, and biology. Biology graduates with a strong computing background will also be suitable. Prospective candidates should apply via e-mail to <Jackie.Taylor@hgu.mrc.ac.uk> or by mail to Jackie Taylor, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Western General Hospital, Crewe Road, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK, sending a full, up-to-date C.V. (include vacation address), and names and addresses of two academic referees. The deadline for full applications is the 27th March with interviews planned for the following week.

Further Detail on the Research Area:

The MRC Mouse Atlas and Gene Expression Database project at the Human Genetics Unit is developing a large scale image-mapped database of gene-expression and other spatially mapped data. (see http://genex.hgu.mrc.ac.uk/) The purpose is to enable spatial comparison of gene and cellular activity to help the analysis and understanding of the genetic control of development. This project has been extended to later stages of the mouse embryo by a collaborative grant from Glaxo-Wellcome which brings in new problems of image scale. The purpose of this research is to develop techniques to handle these images and to provide new means for comparison, visualisation and analysis.

At the core of the gene-expression database are a set of 3D grey-level voxel images which define the spatial coordinate framework for the mapping of the data. The image coordinates are a simple rectilinear axes and do not reflect the "natural'' coordinates of the embryo eg dorsal-ventral etc. The data will be entered by mapping onto the standard reconstructions and will represent partial views of complex 3D patterns from many sources. The data mapped onto this atlas will include gene-expression patterns, lineage information, cellular activity etc and will be submitted to an Object-Oriented DB via CORBA. User interfaces are to be developed in java linked to local machine resources for image capture and analysis.

The research will be on the bioinformatics aspects of the project which range from the 3/4D data mapping of spatial data, database aspects for handling very large scale 3D images, visualisation of complex data, query languages and interfaces for analysis and DB query, and interoperability with other biological databases. A possible project for the mapping and visualisation aspects is given below but there is space for a keen student to attack any of the informatics problems in this area:

Review and develop new methods for visualising and analysing these complex patterns with particular emphasis on the mapping of data into more natural coordinates related to the embryo structure. This could be the a set of coordinates linked to the embryo shape and define dorsal-ventral, left-right etc at any point within the embryo or may be a more complex mapping eg of the brain cortex to a 2D sheet allow comparison in a frame more easily understood and visualised. If standardised mappings can be developed eg which "straighten-out'' the embryo then this will aid the analysis of temporal sequences of gene-expression as well as between embryos of different species. These techniques should solve the current left-right problem (ie how to compare data entered on different sides) and provide new tools for the comparison and matching of patterns.

Another mapping that will be important and arises from the later embryos now being reconstructed is that from "special systems''. The term special systems has been coined to cover reconstructions to a high resolution of small regions of the embryo embedded within the lower resolution main atlas. These are regions of some special scientific interest for which higher cellular detail is required. Within the Mouse Atlas the coordinate frame of the main recontruction will be "grid-lines'' through the special system and to compare data we need to know the mapping from one frame to the other. This will in general be a complex non-linear transformation and techniques which allow spatial-queries to be mapped onto the main and special-systems database are required.

In all cases these methods are required as part of a sophisticated interface to the gene-expression database and are intended to allow more complex queries and comparisons and therefore an inportant part of the research is how to provide these tools to the user within the Database/WWW/Java environment. It is likely that these methods will have applications in a wide range of image-mapped biological databases.

Further Details on the MRC

The MRC Human Genetics Unit (Director: Professor Nick hastie) is one of the largest MRC establishments in the UK. Research in the Unit covers a wide range of topics including human genetics, cancer genetics, gene therapy, molecular biology, mouse genetics and developmental biology, molecular cytogenetics and chromosome structure, and yeast molecular genetics. We are well resourced and have an active and demanding PhD programme, with about 20 PhD students funded both from the MRC and elsewhere, within the Unit.

For more information write to the address above or see:

http://www.hgu.mrc.ac.uk/

This project is supervised by Dr. Richard Baldock, on whose behalf I am posting this message.

Ian J. Jackson
Senior Scientist
MRC Human Genetics Unit
Western General Hospital
Crewe Road
Edinburgh EH4 2XU
Phone: +44 (0)131 467 8409
Fax:+44 (0)131 343 2620
http://www.hgu.mrc.ac.uk

Richard B. Talbot Symposium on Veterinary Informatics
July 25-27, 1998; Baltimore, MD
(See this issue's feature article for details)

1998 AMIA Spring Congress: Call for Participation
May 27-30, 1998; Philadelphia, PA
"Bringing Knowledge to the Point of Use"
The Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel
Philadelphia, PA.
(See the January-February, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

Stanford Medical Informatics Short Course
June or August, 1998; Stanford, CA
(See the January-February, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

Medical Informatics Degree Program at UC-Davis
(See the January-February, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Public Health -
Third National Conference
August 17-21, 1998; San Diego, CA
Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California
(See the January-February, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

International Health Geographics Conference
October 16-18 1998; Baltimore, MD
Venue: The Maritime Institute of Technology, Baltimore, Maryland
(See the January-February, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

AMIA 1998 Annual Symposium
Nov 7-11, 1998; Orlando, FL
(See the March-April, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

Postdoctoral Training Program at Columbia
From: "James Cimino" <ciminoj@CUCIS.CIS.COLUMBIA.EDU>

The Department of Medical Informatics at Columbia University is now accepting applications for postdoctoral training programs, to commence July 1, 1998. Applicants must have an MD, PhD, or equivalent.
(See the March-April, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

GEOSTATS: GIS and Decision Support: Call for Papers

http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/hicss

(See the March-April, 1998 AVI Newsletter for details)

CLOSING BITS

Here are some "terrifying" new viruses on the prowl

Freudian Virus:
Your computer becomes obsessed with its own motherboard. Or becomes very jealous of the size of your friend's hard drive

Lorena Bobbit Virus:
Turns your hard disk into a 3.5 inch floppy

Tonya Harding Virus:
Turns your .BAT files into lethal weapons

Paul Revere Virus:
Warns of an impending virus infection: 1 if by LAN, 2 if by C:\

Hillary Rodham Clinton Virus:
Instantly turns 1K of disk space into 1 Meg

Ollie North Virus:
Plays a patriotic .WAV while it shreds your files

Joey Buttafuaco Virus:
Only attacks minor files

Ronald Reagan Virus:
Saves your data, but forgets where it's stored

Jane Fonda Virus:
Attacks your hard drive's FAT

Oprah Winfrey Virus:
Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands to 300MB

AT&T Virus:
Every three minutes it tells you what great service you are getting

MCI Virus:
Every three minutes it reminds you that you're paying too much for the AT&T virus

Politically Correct Virus:
Never calls itself a "virus," but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."

Ross Perot Virus:
Activates every component in your system, just before the whole darn thing quits

Arnold Schwarzenegger Virus:
Terminates and stays resident. It'll be back

Government Economist Virus:
Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine

Federal Beaurocrat Virus:
Divides your hard disk into hundreds of little units, each of which does practically nothing, but all of which claim to be the most important part of your computer

Adam and Eve Virus:
Takes a couple of bytes out of your Apple computer

Congressional Virus #1:
The computer locks up, screen splits erratically with a message appearing on each half blaming the other side for the problem

Congressional Virus #2:
Runs every program on the hard drive simultaneously but doesn't allow the user to accomplish anything

Airline Virus:
You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore

PBS Virus:
Your computer stops every few minutes to ask for money

Jimmy Hoffa Virus:
Your programs can never be found again

LAPD Virus:
It claims it feels threatened by the other files on your PC and erases them in "self-defense."

O.J. Virus:
It claims that it did not, could not and would not delete two of your files and vows to find the virus that did it.

May-June 1998 AVI Newsletter <http://netvet.wustl.edu/avi.htm>

Association forVeterinary InformaticsNEWSLETTER