===================================================================== AMERICAN VETERINARY COMPUTER SOCIETY NEWSLETTER November-December, 1995 ===================================================================== Robert Featherston (Tulsa, OK) - President; James T. Case (UC-Davis) - Secretary Treasurer; Ronald D. Smith (Illinois) - Newsletter Editor. ===================================================================== IN THIS ISSUE SOCIETY NEWS How to Contact AVCS The AVCS has a New Name!!! CORRESPONDENCE Difference Between AVCS and AAVI? REPORT ON THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL INFORMATICS INTRODUCTORY SHORT COURSE (8/28/95 - 9/1/95) PRODUCT AVAILABILITY/REVIEWS/COMPARISONS Microscopic Anatomy CD-ROM Veterinary Hospital Information System Data Model Control of Communicable Diseases Manual on CD-ROM INTERNET RESOURCES ProMED - Global Surveillance, Emerging Infections JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association WWW Site Elsevier Science Journals Table of Contents Service PAHO LAUNCHES WEB & GOPHER SERVERS From PopMed News - 12/5/95 News Stories - Electronic Data Applications in Healthcare New List - PROMED-AHEAD American Associaiton of Bovine Practitioners Discussion Group Clickable Maps of Anaesthesia A WWW Source for Virology/Microbiology Information VETPLUS-L Electronic Forum for Veterinarians Online Clinical Calculator All the Virology Sites on the Web Farm Sites on the WWW NEWS AND COMMENTARY Veterinary Informatics Standards. MEETINGS AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES Providing Patient Education via the Internet, Miami, Florida AIM-96 (Aritificial Intelligence in Medicine), Stanford, California Toward an Electronic Patient Record '96, San Diego, Callifornia AMIA 1996 Spring Congress, Kansas City, Missouri ITCH'96 - Information Technology in Community Health, Victoria, BC, Canada, Interactive Multimedia Mini-Residency Program (1995-97) Fellowships in Medical Informatics at the University of Missouri CLOSING BITS ===================================================================== SOCIETY NEWS ===================================================================== How to Contact AVCS Applications for membership, accompanied by a check for $35 payable to the AVCS, should be sent to Dr. James T. Case; AVCS Secretary Treasurer; School of Veterinary Medicine; University of California; P.O. Box 1770; Davis, CA 95617 (Phone: 916/752-4408; FAX: 916/752-5680; e-mail: jcase@gypsy.ucdavis.edu). Dr. Case is responsible for distribution of the hardcopy version of the AVCS Newsletter. Newsletter items can be sent to Dr. Ronald D. Smith, AVCS Newsletter Editor; UI College of Veterinary Medicine; 2001 South Lincoln; Urbana, IL 61801. Telephone: 217/333-2449; FAX: 217/333-4628; AOL: RDSmith; Internet: rd-smith@uiuc.edu If you would like to be on the AVCS 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 Newsletter can be searched, read and downloaded from the NETVET Gopher server . They can also be downloaded from the Associations and Foundations Library of America Online's Veterinary Information Network. ===================================================================== The AVCS has a New Name!!! From: JimCase@aol.com The results of the supplemental ballot for 1996 are in. Over 45% of the ballots mailed out in November were returned. The first vote was a runoff between the top two names for the Society. A name change requires a two-thirds vote of the membership returning ballots and the Association for Veterinary Informatics was selected by 77% of the respondents. Along with the changes in the membership eligibility approved in the first ballot, we hope to open up our membership to anyone interested in the field of veterinary informatics both in the United States and abroad. This new diversity will benefit both the AVI and the discipline of veterinary informatics as a whole. The second issue on the ballot was a change in the existing bylaws increasing the membership of the executive committee to include the chairs of the current standing committees (Newsletter, Education and Nominating). This was approved by 93% of the voters. These two changes come on the heels of the efforts of the current AVCS executive committee to increase membership participation in the growth and advancement of the organization. You can expect some substantial changes in the coming months. We encourage you to participate in the activities of this new Association. ===================================================================== CORRESPONDENCE ===================================================================== Difference Between AVCS and AAVI? Posted to: VETINFO@wuvmd.wustl.edu From: "Mauricio Garcia, DVM, PhD" I would like to know the difference between American Veterinary Computer Society and American Academy of Veterinary Informatic scope, structure and activity. Can someone help me? Reply by: Ken Boschert AVCS was started several years ago at the outset of personal computer availability as a means for veterinarians to get together and share experiences with the "new-fangled contraption". Over time, it somewhat dwindled in need as this knowledge became more commonplace. At the moment the group is trying to revamp itself as a more up-to-date group that can help provide a framework for veterinary interests in all uses of computers. The AAVI is a slightly more hard core group of veterinarians (self- included :-) that live and breathe computers or more properly stated, are interested in the larger field of informatics, taking into account again, all the uses of computers and their application to veterinary medicine. The group was formed with the intention that veterinary informatics become recognized as a board specialty within the veterinary profession. There have been two attempts to gain specialty recognition with the American Board of Veterinary Specialties at AVMA and these have not been successful. At the moment, the group is in the process of building up a larger body of work, therefore a better case for specialization, before making another attempt. Membership addition is dormant until this next step is taken. ===================================================================== A REPORT ON THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL INFORMATICS INTRODUCTORY SHORT COURSE AUGUST 28 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 1, 1995 Submitted by F. Alexei Sherer, DVM Village Veterinary Hospital; 316 W. Mission Ave. #113 Escondido, CA 92025 Fax (619) 741-5585; Phone (619) 741-9999; E-mail drfaces@aol.com For those of you who have a strong interest in Medical Informatics at the cutting edge, the twice yearly Short Course at Stanford University is an excellent way to get an overview of the field. The course is held at the Medical School on campus, about one half hour south of San Francisco. The faculty of the course include some of the founders and leaders of the field such as Lawrence Fagan and Edward Shortliffe. The short course lasts 5 days and is available as lecture only or lecture and lab. Course materials are excellent. One month before the course, you receive the textbook Medical Informatics, Computer Applications in Health Care and a bound manual of reprints organized by day and lecture topic. The reprints are more current and update the foundation laid by the textbook. Suggested readings from the textbook by lecture are also included. It's a lot of material to get through, however it is organized by main topics and ancillary topics so you can be more efficient. It's well worth the effort to review the material before the course starts. At registration, you receive a 3 ring binder with printed versions of the lecture slides. If you are registered for the lab, you also receive lab exercises. Consequently little note taking is required and you can concentrate on listening during lectures. The fifty plus attenders, while predominantly MDs, reflect the highly integrative nature of the field and include engineers in telecommunications, computer company employees, health care consultants from accounting firms, people from medical equipment companies, and last but not least, three veterinarians! The mixed group makes for interesting idea exchange. Monday included an introduction and some lectures on relational databases and networking. Depending on your level of computer knowledge, you may find some of this old hat, but it is a good review and helps bring everyone up to speed. Relational database concepts are covered, but object-oriented databases are not. This was one of the few weaknesses of the course, although the read ahead reprints did include an article. It is an important omission since object orientation is the new paradigm and is also something many of us (myself included) have some trouble grasping. The networking lecture covered networking concepts, history of the internet, and the world wide web. Monday's laboratory was enjoyable and included web cruising medical and informatics sites as well as creating our own web page in HTML (hypertext markup language). For those of us from outside institutional settings, we found the speed of the connections addictive compared to our personal 14.4 web connections. We often spent parts of later labs clandestinely cruising the web. I am now actively considering an ISDN line! Tuesday's lectures covered controlled medical vocabularies and bibliographic retrieval. Controlled vocabularies are essential to the envisioned uses of bibliographic retrieval and decision support. Here is one vision for the future: You are in the exam room recording your observations on a patient in an electronic record using controlled vocabulary, probably by picking terms from lists of findings. You would like some abstracts or articles relevant to your patient. You highlight the portion of the record you would like used as the context/search definition and ask for abstracts. The system presents you with a list of suggested search terms. You quickly confirm or edit them and it instantly presents you with the abstracts of interest. If you like, you can get the full text article immediately, too. This sounds like an improvement over current methods for applying up to date knowledge to our patients! However, it is far more difficult to accomplish if we don't use controlled vocabularies. It would require advances in the field of natural language processing. Prototype systems in this field have been able to extract controlled terminology summaries of radiologists reports with moderate reliability. Tuesday's lab included exploring the Unified Medical Language System, a metathesaurus of other controlled vocabularies organized by concept. This system chooses a term for each concept and then connects all synonyms from member vocabularies. It also has encoded semantics which create connections between concepts. This lab also included practice using Grateful Med and Knowledge Server to search Medline. Wednesday's lectures covered electronic medical record issues including data entry interface design and data formatting as well as use of the internet for wide area networking and telemedicine. An interesting concept presented here was web access to medical records. Columbia Medical School actually has a web site where you can go in and view patient data from their hospital stripped of any patient identifiers. There is also a web site called the virtual hospital at . The Wednesday lab was one of the highlights of the week for the clinically oriented. A research prototype of a pen based medical record entry system was demonstrated. Positive findings are entered by simply circling them on a list organized by organ systems. Negative findings are entered by simply drawing a line through them. For each finding circled, a customized list of modifiers appears organized under 12 headings: past history, onset, frequency, type, relieved by, brought on by, laterality, location, radiation, severity, trend, and quality. These can be circled, too. Most findings do not have modifiers available in all these categories. As you enter findings, it automatically creates a free text note such as: "Moderate cough for the last 2 days. The cough is not improving. The cough is brought on by smoking." Preliminary tests suggest that trained users will be able to enter the medical record faster this way than with handwritten notes. This speed is considered indispensable if you wish to convince the majority of doctors to use such a system. Thursday's lectures covered decision making support. An important review of sensitivity, specificity and how prevalence affects them started off the day. Approaches to decision support included protocols, algorithms, clinical case databanks to help match your patient to similar patients, neural networks, bayesian belief networks, rule-based systems, and heuristics. The roles of probability and uncertainty were also discussed. Some of these concepts were the most difficult of the week, especially for the mathematically challenged. Thursday's lab dispelled any notion that we will be replaced by computers any time soon. However, it was clear that diagnostic programs have great potential in difficult cases. They are particularly good at producing long differentials that include diseases we leave out for two reasons: 1) the disease is very rare, 2) the symptoms we are seeing are not commonly observed in the disease (e.g. dermatitis in heartworm). We tried out two human diagnostic programs side by side on the same cases. It seems clear that until we have controlled vocabulary electronic medical records, such programs will be used mainly the way we use text books. It takes far too long to enter all the symptoms for a patient in the preferred terminology of the program to use it in an exam room setting. However, these programs far exceed the utility of a textbook since they collect information on multiple diseases rapidly and they work from problem to disease (the true clinical situation), not in reverse. They are also able to answer why they put certain diseases on the list by presenting you with the rules used. Friday was "gee whiz" day - imaging systems and computer aided instruction. Patient monitoring, especially in the ICU environment with multiple data streams was also covered. The lecture on imaging discussed some of the bandwidth bottlenecks slowing development from electronic storage through network transmission to large multiple screen display. Computer aided instruction types included didactic, hypertext browsing, self-tests, and collaborative. Friday's lab included a memorable demonstration of computer power. CT scans from patients were rendered into 3D graphics. Then one could take a "fantastic voyage" through the body, observing organ surfaces, "flying" down arteries looking for blockages (called CT angiography) and "flying" through the intestine looking for lesions (CT endoscopy). We saw actual scans from a human patient with a small polyp in the colon and another with a stint inserted in the aorta. The radiologist who demonstrated this said he was anxious to get it into use within 7 years because he would turn 50 and his first screening colonoscopy would be required! The whole program was very professionally presented. It is not inexpensive, but the caliber of the program makes it a reasonable value. It is $1300 for lectures, project overviews, and labs, $900 without labs. For more information, 1)visit 2) e-mail short-course-request@camis.stanford.edu using subject: send course or 3) call Irene Zagazeta at 415-723-6979. Editor's Note: Registration is now being accepted for the 1996 Medical Informatics Short Course which will be held June 17th through June 21st, 1996. The 1996 course will have the same elements as the 1995. Minor modifications are expected, and they will be posted on the short course www page at... http://www-camis.stanford.edu/people/kxl/misc95/misc95new.html For questions/comments direct your e-mail to: short- course@camis.stanford.edu ===================================================================== PRODUCT AVAILABILITY/REVIEWS/COMPARISONS ===================================================================== Microscopic Anatomy CD-ROM From: Anthony Mcknight MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY CD-ROM: A Revolutionary New Tool For Science Education Gainesville, FL-- Gold Standard Multimedia Inc. has announced the CD-ROM release of Microscopic Anatomy, an innovative cellular anatomy tutorial the company has developed in conjunction with the University of Florida College of Medicine. A Macintosh-based videodisc version of the software has been primary course material at the College of Medicine for more than three years and students who have used it praise it as one of the most useful tools for basic science instruction. The new CD-ROM integrates the original two-monitor videodisc program into a single interactive interface for both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. This release completes Gold Standard Multimedia's "Anatomy Suite," a three-CD series which includes the Human Anatomy and Radiologic Anatomy programs already in use at over 90% of all medical schools in the United States. Microscopic Anatomy is modeled after the classroom exercises of Dr. Thomas Hollinger, Associate Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Florida. It presents a logical organization of 1,200 histologic slides and electron micrographs, each with references to degrees of magnification, detailed explanatory text, descriptions of the staining procedures for the various specimens, and color arrows highlighting key structures. Zoom capabilities allow full-screen enlargement of the slides for closer observation. The program also features a five minute movie of Dr. Hollinger demonstrating the set-up and use of a microscope. Because Microscopic Anatomy is based on and intended for an educational setting, it includes extensive quizzing and review features. The interactive "practical" and written exam formats draw on a bank of more than 1,750 questions which offer immediate feedback and reinforcement. The suggested retail price for the Microscopic Anatomy (MA) Individual CD-ROM is US$99. An Institutional CD-ROM version with additional tools for end-user modification will be available in the coming months for US$500. For a brochure, more information or to order contact: Indra Harper, McKnight Associates Voice: (904)378-7773 FAX: (904)337-0760 INTERNET: WFOEnt@aol.com Gold Standard Multimedia, Inc. Distributor/Sales Agent Visit some of our Web Sites: http://www.altcare.com/catalog/cover.html http://www.winc.com/commerce/expomed/software.html ===================================================================== Veterinary Hospital Information System Data Model From: "Arthur B. Smith" I have just placed a copy of some software on the anonymous ftp server at vets.vetmed.missouri.edu. This is a visual basic program which allows you to explore the data model under consideration for a new hospital information system at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of Missouri-Columbia. This model is very much a "work in progress", and the information in it is notably incomplete in several areas, and subject to revision throughout. The computer committee for the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery is examining the data model currently, and welcomes any outside input. For those of you in the human medicine side, you will notice that some things are a little different from what you are used to (for example separating the owner from the patient), and some things you are used to are missing (such as 3rd party payers). Nevertheless, I hope there is material here which will interest you. You are invited to download this software and peruse it. Any questions, comments or other feedback will be very much appreciated, and should be directed to art@vets.vetmed.missouri.edu. The software is easy to use -- basically, just click anywhere. Most controls (including titles and frames) will describe their component of the data model in greater detail when clicked on. Some (buttons in a button panel, or buttons marked with arrows) will take you to the corresponding place in the data model. You should anonymous ftp to vets.vetmed.missouri.edu. The file you will want to download is found in /datamode/dmzip.exe. This file is a self- expanding zip file, which expands into the contents of a setup disk you can use to install the data model software (datamode). It runs under Windows 3.1 (presumably under Windows 95, too). Thanks in advance for any feedback on this model! Please do not hesitate to write, call, fax, or whatever. Addresses and numbers are shown below. Arthur B. Smith; Dept. of Vet. Med. & Surg.; A-353 Clydesdale Hall; University of Missouri; Columbia, MO 65211; (314) 882-2666 (voice) (314) 884-5444 (FAX) (314) 642-4768 (Home) art@vets.vetmed.missouri.edu ===================================================================== Control of Communicable Diseases Manual on CD-ROM This is the CD-ROM version of the 16th (1995) edition of the CCDM published by the American Public Health Association. Each disease listing includes identification, infectious agent, occurrence, reservoir, mode of transmission, incubation period, susceptibility and resistance, and methods of control. ICD 9 and ICD 10 codes, and a dictionary of terms is included. Full text search capability. To order contact APHA Publication Sales, Department 5037, Washington, DC 20061- 5037; Phone: 202/789-5667; Fax 301/565-0711 ===================================================================== INTERNET RESOURCES ===================================================================== ProMED - Global Surveillance, Emerging Infections From: Stephen Morse ProMED - THE PROGRAM FOR MONITORING EMERGING DISEASES AND THE ProMED E- MAIL CONFERENCE Numerous recent episodes of emerging and re-emerging infections, including the global AIDS pandemic, the continuing spread of dengue viruses, the now frequent appearance of hitherto unrecognized diseases such as the hemorrhagic fevers, the resurgence of old scourges like tuberculosis and cholera in new, more severe forms, and the economic and environmental dangers of similar occurrences in animals and plants, attest to our continuing vulnerability to infectious diseases throughout the world. Many experts, both within and outside government, have warned of the need to improve capabilities for dealing with emerging infectious diseases, and the development of an effective global infectious disease surveillance system has been the primary recommendation of expert analyses. ProMED, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, was set up specifically to promote such actions. ProMED was inaugurated in September 1993 at a conference in Geneva co-sponsored by the World Health Organization and the Federation of American Scientists. At that conference 60 prominent experts in human, animal and plant health called for a coordinated global program to identify and respond to emerging infectious diseases, and to provide a forum for coordinating, developing and promoting plans, with the participation of interested parties at all levels. Members of the Steering Committee of ProMED come from all over the world and include representatives of WHO, CDC, NIH and OIE (the International Office of Epizootics), in addition to other organizations and academic institutions. ProMED working groups are continuing (in cooperation with appropriate agencies) to further develop plans for anticipating and preventing emerging infections, and to address specific problems. THE ProMED ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE: A central goal of ProMED is to establish a direct partnership among scientists concerned with emerging infectious diseases in all parts of the world; building the appropriate networks to encourage communicating and sharing information is a key objective. In cooperation with SatelLife/ HealthNet, ProMED has inaugurated an E-mail conference system on the Internet, to encourage timely information sharing and discussion on emerging disease problems worldwide. Through HealthNet, this low- cost system reaches participants in developing countries and remote areas (and we are always interested in suggestions for future expansion). There are currently over 800 subscribers in more than 68 countries worldwide. Reporting of incidents or outbreaks, infectious disease problems of emerging interest, and discussions on how to improve surveillance and response capabilities (including needs at the local level and developments in diagnostics) are especially encouraged. The deaths of race-horses and their trainer in Australia caused by a newly identified morbillivirus, an outbreak of avian influenza in Mexico, and a plant disease that caused severe crop losses in Costa Rica were reported and followed via ProMED. In April 1995, ProMED carried the first report of Japanese encephalitis in Australia. ProMED invites and welcomes the participation of all interested colleagues. To subscribe to the ProMED electronic conference (which is moderated), send an E-mail message to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org Leave the Subject line blank (or put anything you like there), and write subscribe promed in the text space. You will receive an automatic reply with information on how to access past files. From then on, you will receive the messages posted to the ProMED conference as they are received, and can post messages to the network. You can cancel this at any time by sending unsubscribe promed. We welcome your participation in ProMED, and invite your support of ProMED's mission to develop and promote effective early warning systems for emerging infections. ===================================================================== JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association WWW Site From: kallan@sas.upenn.edu (Kallan D Resnick) http://www.ama-assn.org/journals/standing/jama/jamahome.htm Welcome to the Web rendition of the world's most widely read medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association. Peer- reviewed, primary source, highly selected clinical science, disease prevention, and health policy information for physicians and other health professionals. Tables of contents with detailed abstracts. ===================================================================== Elsevier Science Journals Table of Contents Service Welcome to ESTOC, the Elsevier Science Tables of Contents service. This service is updated weekly and gives the tables of contents of approximately 725 Elsevier Science primary and review journals. http://www.elsevier.nl:80/cas/estoc/Menu.html TITLES INTO WHICH THE SITE IS BROKEN DOWN: Engineering Life and Medical Sciences Materials Science Multidiscipline Physical and Environmental Sciences Social / Behavioral Sciences and Humanities SEARCH: article title search authors search journal title search cover date search ISSN search abstracts ===================================================================== PAHO LAUNCHES WEB & GOPHER SERVERS From: "Kwak, Mr. Eunsik" Pan American Health Organization, DC USA The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has launched its Web Server, containing information on Public health and related issues in the Americas. Visit the Web and Gopher servers at http://www.paho.org gopher://gopher.paho.org Contact: webmaster@paho.org ===================================================================== From PopMed News - 12/5/95 News bites and bytes, from the Population Medicine Group; College of Veterinary Medicine; North Carolina State University; popmed@sn1.cvm.ncsu.edu -o- How far will a Sacramento dollar go in Anchorage? Utica? Los Angeles? Find out quickly from the Center for Mobility Resources Salary Calculator (http://www.homefair.com/homefair/cmr/salcalc.html). By simply entering the origin and destination city codes and salary, you'll quickly find out whether that great job offer is really that great! If you're into relocation stuff, check out CMR's Web site at http://www.homefair.com/homefair/cmr/cmr.html. -o- One of the most complete medical knowledge-bases on the Internet is the Martindale Health Science Guide, (http://www- sci.lib.uci.edu/~martindale/HSGuide.html), with pointers to medical centers covering just about every major field of medicine. For those interested in new age or unorthodox healing and medicine, a one-stop site is the Alternative Medicine Home Page (http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html), which covers acupuncture, massage, and music therapy. (Weekly Mail and Guardian, South Africa; December 1, 1995) -o- "1996 Multimedia Tool Guide" New Media Special 13th Annual Issue (November 1995) [http://www.hyperstand.com/SITE/toolguide/1996.ToolGuide.html] -- This entire issue of New Media magazine is a guide to software and hardware for the authoring and delivery of multimedia. The issue is broken down into six sections: authoring, online, audio, video, storage, and display, with subsections on specifics like sound cards, MPEG encoding systems, CD Recording Systems, etc. New Media is now available also on the Web at http://www.hyperstand.com. ===================================================================== News Stories - Electronic Data Applications in Healthcare From: Pete Mitchell Anyone interested in international news stories about electronic data applications in healthcare can see headlines from today's issue of our newsletter, free at our WWW site at http://www.pjbpubs.co.uk/a/emedhome.html. Or you can mail us at emed@dmed.demon.co.uk and get a free thousand-word summary file of all the stories (for this we need your full name, organization, and geo. address). ===================================================================== New List - PROMED-AHEAD From: Stephen Morse AHEAD: NEW PROMED ANIMAL & ZOONOTIC DISEASE LIST AHEAD = Animal Health/Emerging Animal Diseases Under a grant to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to expand the animal and zoonotic disease component of ProMED, we have set up a separate sublist, PROMED-AHEAD, to accommodate subscribers who may prefer to receive only animal and zoonotic disease postings. Dr. Martin Hugh-Jones (Director, WHO Collaborating Center for reference and training in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems for Veterinary Public Health at Louisiana State University) has agreed to review the animal and zoonotic disease reports. You may send reports directly to him at or post them to . Anyone who wishes to change his or her subscription, please mail to a message, saying: unsubscribe promed (or promed-digest, or promed-edr) subscribe promed-ahead If you prefer to remain on your current list, please do us a favor so that we can later determine our progress in attracting new veterinary subscribers to ProMED lists. If you are engaged in veterinary health (medical practice, research, epidemiology, education, administration, etc) and DO NOT want to change your present ProMED subscription, please send mail to the FAS Animal Disease Project Coordinator, Dorothy Preslar with the following message: vet IMPORTANT: No one will be arbitrarily shifted to AHEAD from ProMED, ProMED-Digest or ProMED-EDR. If you are currently receiving PROMED or PROMED-Digest, you will automatically receive AHEAD postings as well (but if you are engaged in veterinary health, please DO send a message to Dorothy Preslar, as described above). If you have questions about the list, contact Martin Hugh-Jones. If you have suggestions for the FAS ProMED Animal and Zoonotic Disease Project, contact Dorothy Preslar (E-mail: dpreslar@fas.org). ===================================================================== American Association of Bovine Practitioners Discussion Group From: 597-4267@MCIMail.com (preferred); JEhrlich@NetHeaven.com (Jim Ehrlich) AABP-L, the E-Mail Discussion Group of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, has moved to ListProc@upei.ca. Membership is open to AABP members only. To Subscribe, send e-mail to ListProc@upei.ca saying "SUBSCRIBE AABP-L firstname lastname". For information, send "INFO AABP-L" to the same address, or contact AABP headquarters (phone: 1-800-COW-AABP). Currently, AABP-L has nearly 400 subscribers. ===================================================================== Clickable Maps of Anaesthesia From: focon@hacktic.nl (foconnor) Dear Anaesthesia Web users, Something new on a global scale. It's easy. It's relaxing on the eyes and cerebrum. Log into http://www.eur.nl/FGG/ANEST/wright to "click " your way around the WWW world of anaesthesia. I would be very grateful for any help spatial inaccuracies, incorrect address's etc. Frank "OConnor ===================================================================== A WWW Source for Virology/Microbiology Information From: dmsander@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu (David M. Sander) Dear Fellow Web User, I would like to announce the presence on the Web of a resource for microbiology and virology. "All the Virology Sites on the WWW" can be found at: http://www.tulane.edu/~dmsander/garryfavweb.html I have constructed a list of all the WWW sites of interest to Virologists and others. This comprehensive page lists Servers for General Virology, Specific Viruses, Microbiology, AIDS, Emerging Viruses, Electronic Journals, Scientific Societies, Patent and Legal Information, Government Sites and much much more. A more complete and recently updated table of contents appears below. We have also recently been placed with the Whole Internet Catalog, The Clearinghouse, and Point Survey's Top 5% of WWW Sites in recognition of our success.This page is maintained and updated often. Any submissions, additions or corrections that you might have would be very much appreciated. With your assistance, this Web Site will continue to be the best resource of its kind on the Web. For those of you who maintain your own Web Pages, please send me your address if it doesn't already appear on mine. I will gladly add it to the list. This page is maintained by me through the Garry Lab at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. ===================================================================== VETPLUS-L Electronic Forum for Veterinarians VETPLUS-L Veterinary Professionals List - provides an electronic forum for veterinarians, physicians, and professionals in related fields to discuss animal health topics. It will serve as a place for professionals and scholars to interact and discuss special issues relating to animal care and management. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listproc@u.washington.edu and in the body of the message, enter: subscribe VETPLUS-L Firstname Lastname. Contact: Jeff Parke, DVM (jeffp@vetmed.wsu.edu) or Allan Berger, DVM (alb2@cornell.edu). ===================================================================== Online Clinical Calculator From: barnas@post.its.mcw.edu (Gary P. Barnas, M.D.) The Medical College of Wisconsin Division of General Internal Medicine has developed a WWW based Online Clinical Calculator at: http://www.intmed.mcw.edu/clincalc.html Included are a Baysian calculator (to calculate test sensitivity, specificity, predicitive values, and liklihood ratios), Weights and Measures, Body Mass Index, and Estimated Creatinine Clearance. We welcome suggestions for additional formulas to include. Please try this out, your feedback is appreciated! ===================================================================== All the Virology Sites on the Web From: dmsander@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu (David M. Sander) "All the Virology Sites on the WWW" (http://www.tulane.edu/~dmsander/garryfavweb.html) has been updated. We have also recently been placed with the Whole Internet Catalog, The Clearinghouse, and Point Survey's Top 5% of WWW Sites in recognition of our success. This comprehensive page lists Servers for General Virology, Specific Viruses, Microbiology, AIDS, Emerging Viruses, Electronic Journals, Scientific Societies, Patent and Legal Information, Government Sites and much much more. A more complete and recently updated table of contents appears below. This page is maintained and updated often. Any submissions, additions or corrections that you might have would be very much appreciated. With your assistance, this Web Site will continue to be the best resource of its kind on the Web. For those of you who maintain your own Web Pages, please send me your address if it doesn't already appear on mine. I will gladly add it to the list. This page is maintained by me through the Garry Lab at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. ===================================================================== Farm Sites on the WWW -Web site that allows producers and buyers from all over the world to market/purchase cattle (and other livestock) on the web. http://www.crimson.com/livestock/ -All kinds of farm-related resources can be found at http://www.agpr.com/consulting/farmworks/ ===================================================================== NEWS AND COMMENTARY ===================================================================== Veterinary Informatics Standards. From: "Arthur B. Smith" Dear charter members of VISO, VIP and other interested parties, Quite a bit has been happening on the Veterinary Informatics Standards front! Many of you know some or all of this, so please pardon the repetition, but.... Last January, there was a meeting here at the University of Missouri for Veterinary Computer Staff, Medical Records/Health Information Staff, Hospital Administrators and other interested parties, discussing several aspects of veterinary computing. At the end of the meeting, the group elected to form "Veterinary Information Professionals", to work on several projects, most notably developing standards for such things as the structure and content of the hospital information system, standardized nomenclature(s), etc. In July, in conjunction with the AVMA and AVHIMA meetings, a slightly different version of this group met. This time the group formally founded itself under Roberts Rules of Order, changing the name of the group to the Veterinary Informatics Standards Organization (VISO), ratified bylaws, elected officers, established committees and committed itself to becoming an ANSI accredited Standards Development Organization (SDO). At about the same time as this meeting, the American Veterinary Computer Society (AVCS), which has been interested in these same topics for quite some time, voted to open its membership to all people interested in advancing Veterinary Informatics (it had previously been restricted to include only DVM's). The AVCS also has established the goals of becoming an ANSI SDO. At the SAME time, the AVMA Informatics Committee established a Subcommittee on Standards, chaired by Dr. Walter Weirich of Purdue, and this group also set the goal of becoming an ANSI SDO to develop the same sorts of standards. Obviously, we don't need three independent groups working on developing overlapping standards. We are currently working on determining how these groups can be appropriately coalesced. At present, it looks like VISO will move toward becoming the Standards Development arm of AVCS (becoming a Special Interest Group (SIG) of AVCS). This would hopefully then be blessed as the appropriate ANSI SDO by the AVMA Subcommittee on Standards, as it will satisfy the diversity of membership that ANSI requires of accredited SDO's. Details of this still need to be worked out, and a ballot of VISO members will need to be taken, but this is the direction the Executive Committee of VISO has taken during recent teleconference meetings, and in discussions with Dr. Jim Case of the AVCS and Dr. Weirich of the AVMA Subcommittee on Standards. I believe all of you have expressed some interest (at least) in the development of informatics standards for veterinary medicine. At this point, I would like to ask for your input on the direction we are taking. VISO members are especially invited to comment, as you will later be receiving a ballot to determine if we choose to reconstitute ourselves as a branch of the AVCS or some other organization. Most of you should also be receiving information soon from the AVCS about joining it. I recommend personally and on behalf of the VISO Executive Committee that you seriously consider joining the AVCS. This will likely be a requirement for VISO membership, and is a worthwhile organization in any case. There are many details still to be worked out, and no firm decisions have been made yet. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that we can have these details ironed out well in advance of next July so that we can deal with any necessary formalities in a quick plenary session, and then start on the detailed work of standards development. I encourage all of you to "keep the faith" and start thinking about the content of standards you would like to see. As soon as these organizational concerns are addressed, I hope to see draft standards started so they can be deliberated upon next July. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write, phone or fax me. Please let me know how you feel about the direction the VISO Executive Committee is taking, and please seriously consider joining the AVCS when you receive the membership information. Arthur B. Smith; Dept. of Vet. Med. & Surg.; A-353 Clydesdale Hall; University of Missouri; Columbia, MO 65211; (314) 882-2666 (voice) (314) 884-5444 (FAX) (314) 642-4768 (Home) art@vets.vetmed.missouri.edu ===================================================================== MEETINGS AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ===================================================================== February 12-14, 1996 Providing Patient Education via the Internet, Miami, Florida For more information call 800/999-3123, Fax 800/959-9644, or e-mail us002506@interramp.com ===================================================================== March 27-29, 1996 AIM-96 (Aritificial Intelligence in Medicine), Stanford, California See the September-October, 1995 AVCS Newsletter for details. ===================================================================== May 11-19, 1996 Toward an Electronic Patient Record '96, San Diego, Callifornia For more information call 617/964-3923 or e-mail cust_service@medrecinst.com ===================================================================== June 5-8, 1996 AMIA 1996 Spring Congress, Kansas City, Missouri "Conquering Distance: Teleinformatics-Telemedicine-Telehealth" For more information write: AMIA; 4915 St. Elmo Avenue; Suite 401; Bethesda, MD 20814 ===================================================================== November 3-5, 1996 ITCH'96 - Information Technology in Community Health, Victoria, BC, Canada, http://sol.uvic.ca/heis/ITCH/ITCH.html Interactive Multimedia Mini-Residency Program (1995-97) From: popmed@sn1.cvm.ncsu.edu (Population Medicine Program) Sponsored by the USDA Higher Education Challenge Grants Program and the Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine. Purpose: Provide opportunity for small teams of Agricultural and Veterinary Medical faculty to work together for 3-5 days, developing interactive instructional software. Each team will consist of three non-Iowa State University and one ISU faculty member. An objective of the project is to facilitate inter-institutional instructional development. Thus, where possible each four person team will represent four colleges of agriculture or veterinary medicine. Ideally the teams will continue co-development after returning to their home institution, and participants will be selected for this potential. The focus of each mini-residency will be tailored to the needs and expertise of the visiting team. Focus areas: Introductory authoring with Authorware Professional, Advanced authoring with Authorware Professional, animation and authoring, video/audio capture and authoring, authoring and network distribution, etc. Cost: Participants, or their institutions, will pay for transportation, lodging, and meals. Costs of registration and mini-residency training will be provided by the grant. Each participant will be assisted in the selection and purchase of the software applications used during the mini-residency program. Subsequent to completion of the mini-residency training, participants need to have the appropriate hardware and software for immediately continuing software development in their individual institutions. Location of training: The Interactive Multimedia Laboratory, Rooms 2255 and 2257, of the Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine. When: Beginning December, 1995, one mini-residency session will be held each month. Seventeen such sessions will be held during the two-year period, 1995-97. Contact: Don Adams, e-mail: dadams@iastate.edu; FAX 515-294-3932, Phone 515-294-7710. Information needed to initiate a mini-residency program includes the following from each applicant: 1) focus needs area (discipline and technology: e.g. entomology/authoring); 2) names of individuals at other institutions who will also participate as part of the team (identification of co-participants may be developed subsequent to application); 3) time periods available for participation in mini- residency; 4) preferred workstation and level of expertise; 5) description of how interactive programs developed by the "team" will be incorporated into the agricultural or veterinary curriculum. ===================================================================== Fellowships in Medical Informatics at the University of Missouri From: "David E. Moxley" The University of Missouri offers a flexible program to train postdoctoral and predoctoral candidates for an academic career in health informatics. A three-month fellowship for medical and veterinary students desiring a short research experience is also offered. The training program and curriculum prepares individuals to develop, use, and evaluate applications of innovative information methods and computers in the health care environment. The program emphasizes the synthesis, retrieval, organization, and effective management and communication of knowledge. The core curriculum consists of courses from five different divisions. The MU program has ten core faculty and numerous clinical affiliations with faculty from diverse backgrounds and active research programs. Upon completion of the program, all fellows are expected to have basic competency in computer networks, decision support systems, database management systems, health information systems, information science, and research methods. Graduating trainees should be qualified for an academic career in medical informatics. All fellows choose to work with a senior researcher on medical informatics projects. Current projects include: -Telemedicine -Information systems for managed care -Electronic Medical Records -Expert systems, reminder systems, knowledge based systems -Fuzzy Logic, neural networks, advanced architectures -High Performance Communications and Computing (HPCC) -Clinician and student workstations -Multimedia systems for professional and patient education -Full-text information retrieval and search heuristics -Molecular biology computing -Applications of the Unified Medical Language System -Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems -Computer assisted continuous quality improvement -Computer vision and image analysis -Randomized controlled clinical trials of information interventions -Meta-analysis of controlled information service trials -Computers in the integration of clinical and business functions -Intelligent agents for information retrieval -Distributed computing and client /server applications Postdoctoral fellows will receive advanced training in information system development and health informatics research. Strong liaisons are present with the Schools/Programs of Medicine, Nursing, Health Services Management, Library and Informational Science, Veterinary Medicine, Health Related Professions, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Statistics, Education, and Molecular Biology. In collaboration with a faculty mentor, fellows develop independent projects which includes writing proposals, system development, evaluation, and publications. Additionally, postdoctoral fellows holding clinical doctorates (MD, DO, DVM, DDS, etc.) could obtain an advanced degree: 1) A Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, or in Educational Technology; 2) A Master's degree in the above fields or in Computer Science, Health Services Management, or Library and Information Science. Predoctoral fellows are required to obtain a degree depending upon their interests and background: (1) Ph.D. in ECE, (2) Ph.D. in Educational Technology, (3) Ph.D. in Nursing, or (4) M.A. in Library and Informational Science. All programs allow for considerable work in outside areas. For example, a candidate in Educational Technology or Nursing would take courses in Computer Science, and in Computer Engineering, etc. The courses to be taken are worked out by the candidate jointly with the candidate's faculty advisory committee, according to the candidate's interests and goals. Predoctoral fellows must be accepted by an academic department at MU. Short term fellows (3-6 months) will work with a senior researcher on a research project of mutual interest. Short term fellows must be students currently enrolled in Medical or Veterinary Medical School. All fellows must be United States citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. Women and minority candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. For further information visit our homepage at http://www.hsc.missouri.edu/MIGTRAINING/DOCS/MIGHOME.HTML and/or contact: Joyce A. Mitchell, Ph.D., Director and Professor Medical Informatics Group Associate Dean, School of Medicine University of Missouri 605 Lewis Hall Columbia, MO 65211 Current phone: (314) 882-6966. Phone after 1/7/96: 573-882-6966 FAX: 884-4270 email: JOYCE_A._MITCHELL@MUCCMAIL.MISSOURI.EDU The University of Missouri is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. ===================================================================== CLOSING BITS ===================================================================== INCOME TAX INFORMATION on the INTERNET http://www2.best.com/~ftmexpat/html/ Searchable databases covering : Recent Major Educational Additions; State Forms, Instructions or Publications; Income Tax Articles; U.S. Tax Law; Tax Software; Mailing Lists; Newsletters; New or Proposed U.S. Income Tax Changes; and more. FAXES STILL MORE POPULAR THAN E-MAIL Fortune 500 companies with e-mail capability send just as many faxes as those without, reports a recent Gallup/Pitney Bowes survey. The poll found that faxes were preferred over e-mail, voice mail or overnight courier when a quick answer is desired. "Whereas e-mail is primarily used for internal communication, fax is the communications method of choice for urgent documents because it generates the quickest response," says the president of Pitney Bowes' Facsimile Systems Division. (Telecommunications Nov 95 p24) INTERNET DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLY AT MANY SCHOOLS Recent efforts by professors to make greater use of information technology in their coursework have resulted in long lines at computer centers at many colleges across the country. One University of Texas at Austin student complained he has to wait a half hour or more to read his e-mail, and the lines are lengthening. "By the end of the semester, you've got people waiting three hours so they can type a term paper that's half their grade. Professors are requiring students to use the Internet more with their classes, but we're not getting more computers. It's becoming difficult to get your work done." Meanwhile, Bill Graves, associate provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, notes, "In one year's time, we've gone from 8,000 e-mail accounts to 26,000 e-mail accounts." Many university officials privately agree that the only solution is to require students to purchase their own computers, but with the pressure on to hold down tuition costs, they say it's impractical to suggest such changes now. (Chronicle of Higher Education 1 Dec 95 A31)