Association for
Veterinary Informatics
NEWSLETTER

September-October, 1996

Noell Moseley (Memphis, TN) - President; Harmon Rogers (Lake Stevens, WA) - President-Elect; James T. Case (UC-Davis) - Secretary Treasurer; Ronald D. Smith (Illinois) - Newsletter Editor.

IN THIS ISSUE

ASSOCIATION NEWS
- How to Contact AVI
- AVI EMR WG Minutes and Mission Statement
CORRESPONDENCE
- Web-Based Veterinary Electronic Medical Records - Discussion Group
MINUTES OF ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
OF THE
ASSOCIATION FOR VETERINARY INFORMATICS
PRODUCT AVAILABILITY/REVIEWS/COMPARISONS
- HandiSTATUS Version 1.31 Now Available
INTERNET RESOURCES
NEWS AND COMMENTARY
MEETINGS AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
SUGGESTED READING

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

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 Newsletter on the Web at the following URL:
http://netvet.wustl.edu/avi.htm.

AVI EMR WG Minutes and Mission Statement

From: Franklin L Pollari <fpollari@UOGUELPH.CA>

EMR Working Group Members and VETINFO-netters:

At the first meeting of the AVI Electronic Medical Record Working Group in July, the group discussed the problems which this group will address in an attempt to develop a mission statement (see minutes below). I thought it might be useful at this point to put a draft of a mission statement on the table for comment. Does this cover the areas we discussed? Are there other areas we did not identify that should be considered by this group? Does it need to be more specific? You are welcome to comment even if you are not a member of the working group.

Thanks,

Frank Pollari, Chair
EMR Working Group
fpollari@ovcnet.uoguelph.ca

----------------------------------------------------------

The mission of the AVI Electronic Medical Record Working Group is the promotion of knowledge and development of standard guides, specifications, practices, and terminology for the architecture, content, and communication of information used within veterinary care, including patient-specific information and medical knowledge. The working group will also address policies for integrity and confidentiality and computer procedures that support the uses of data and healthcare decision making. The working group's activities will be coordinated with those of other relevant committees and organizations internal and external to AVI.

------------------------------------------------------------

Electronic Medical Record Working Group Meeting July 23, 1996 10:00-12:00 Louisville, Kentucky

The first meeting of the EMR working group was well attended with broad representation of stakeholders in the veterinary EMR. A sign-up sheet was passed and 32 participants completed the form.

After a brief introduction and description of the proposed organization of AVI including the incorporation of VISO as a standing committee, the proposed agenda for the meeting was presented. The two items listed were to 1) produce a mission statement to define the areas and goals of the working group and 2) determine a project for this year.

The group began the process of by listing problems that needed to be addressed to develop an EMR. The following is the list generated:

1 No standards for data set
2 Redundant efforts to collect primary data
3 Focus on data, not on information
4 Problems of accuracy of data, miscoding (the summarization process)
5 Lack of completeness
6 Availability
7 Security
8 Confidentiality
9 Audit trails of data sources and changes
10 Authentication
11 Retrieval of information
12 Decision Support
13 Flexibility and extensibility
14 Legality
15 Records are not self-explanatory
16 Economics of systems $$
17 Linking of different functions - clinical, financial, diagnostic
18 Ease / Speed / Responsiveness
19 Human element - usability - positive feedback
20 Training re system use
21 Marketing of concept of veterinary electronic medical records
22 Fragmentation of development efforts

Duane Steward presented a method of viewing the mission statement which I will crudely try to summarize.

The Mission Statement

-specifies objectives
-which each have attributes
-for which measurable goals can be identified

The group described the Stakeholders of the veterinary EMR :

1 Clinicians - Practitioners and referring vets
2 Patient
3 Staff
4 Industry
5 Regulatory agencies
6 Owners
7 Public health
8 Students
9 Researchers
10 Educators
11 Medical Records Staff
12 Administrators
13 Veterinary Technicians

The group then began to describe some requirements of a veterinary EMR:

1 Longitudinal case record - chronological - problem oriented
2 Trend detection
3 Epidemiology
4 Outcome measures
5 Safety / efficacy
6 Standardized exchange
7 User friendliness

As we were running short of time, we agreed to continue the discussion on VETINFO (listserv@wuvmd.wustl.edu).

Two potential projects were mentioned:

1 Produce a white paper defining functions for the VEMR
2 Detail differences between VEMR and human EMR.

However, there was no time for discussion so this will also be addressed via electronic communication.

CORRESPONDENCE

Web-Based Veterinary Electronic Medical Records - Discussion Group

From: Holly Farish-Hunt <hfhunt@IX.NETCOM.COM>

(Editor's note: Though many of you will not be attending the AMIA meeting, I thought I should include Ms. Farish-Hunt's message in case you'd like to be included in any follow-up discussions.)

After exchanging some thoughts with Ken Boschert relevant to ideas about veterinary medical records development and group practice management, he suggested that I post to this list to seek any indication of interest in organizing an informal gathering at AMIA. He also was not aware of any formal WG meeting scheduled at AMIA and I saw none listed in the preconference publication.

I am by discipline and profession a nurse practitioner that has been involved in everything from academic teaching to private practice over more years than I care to mention. For the past several years I have been involved with healthcare software design and development and now have a privately held company developing healthcare applications utilizing Java and web technology to address what we believe to be critical solutions for the healthcare marketplace. In addition to my healthcare practice with humans, I for many years bred, handled and showed cocker spaniels in and out of our country which exposed me to some very interesting study and knowledge of genetics, animal diseases and veterinary practice. While on the academic faculty of the University of Florida I was priviledged to share a good deal of clinical knowledge and practice with colleagues in the College of Veterinary Medicine in particular, opthamology, hematology and reproductive medicine.

My entry into healthcare informatics resulted from much frustration with major helathcare software vendors producing applications that did not adequately address the issues of professional end-users mainly, it seemed, due to a small amount or no professional domain knowledge being incorporated into the problem solutions analysis and design teams producing the software design specifications. My experiences have been enlightening.

I have followed, although without contribution to this point, the list discussions re: AVI-EMR WG mission statement. Is it possible that there will be continued discussions at AMIA in two weeks?

One of my partners and I would be interested in gathering a small group of practicing veterinarians, with an interest in application development and or practice problems/solutions, to have a discussions of ideas surrounding the development of web technology solutions for the VEMR as well as concepts of group managed practice. We would be happy to provide lunch or afternoon drinks for your participation depending on the gathering time.

If any of you are inspired to dialogue with us please send me a brief note indicating your interest, your area(s) of practice, professional affiliation and days/hours of availability. I will then send out a confirmation of space and time this next week prior to our arrival at AMIA. We will be on-site Friday evening thru Wednesday noon.

Thank you for your interest.
Holly Farish-Hunt, EdS,MS,ARNP
hfhunt@ix.netcom.com

MINUTES OF ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
OF THE
ASSOCIATION FOR VETERINARY INFORMATICS

12:30 PM July 23, 1996
Louisville, Kentucky
Reported by Dr. Harmon Rogers <72467.1505@CompuServe.COM>
Dr. Noell Moseley, President, presiding

Attendance

Thirty-eight members and guests were in attendance including members of the Veterinary Information Standards Organization.

Approval of minutes

The minutes of the 1995 Annual Meeting of the AVI were approved as submitted.

Financial Report

Dr. Robert Featherston, AVI Past President, read the financial report as submitted by Dr. Jim Case, AVI Secretary - Treasurer who was unable to attend the meeting. Income for the year July 1, 1995, to June 30, 1996 was $5,125. All income came from member dues. $3,575 was expended for the year. The end of year cash assets was $13,076.68.

Membership Report

Dr. Robert Featherston read the membership report submitted by Dr. Jim Case. Two membership renewal mailings were made during 1995-1996. The first was in December 1995. Applications for AVI membership are available online at the AVI home page on the World Wide Web. (http://netvet.wustl.edu/aviapply.htm).

Prior to July 23, 1996, AVI had 146 active members including 126 regular members, 19 associate and 1 corporate. There were 152 members during 1994-1995. Additional members were enrolled on July 23, 1996.

Newsletter Report

Dr. Ron Smith, Newsletter Editor, reported that a hard copy of the newsletter is being mailed to members who desire it. The newsletter is also available in electronic formats. A text only format is emailed to requesting members. The newsletter is also available in a password protected area of the AVI website. (http://netvet.wustl.edu/avi.htm) Production and mailing of the newsletter is the most expensive budget item of the AVI.

Submission of newsletter articles is encouraged from all AVI members. Articles are anticipated from the working groups as they continue activities.

Readership of the online version of the newsletter dropped after it became password protected. The Executive Committee has decided to remove the password protection to increase readership and promote the discipline of Veterinary Informatics.

Report from other organizations

American Animal Hospital Association

Dr. Harmon Rogers, AVI president-elect and Chair of the AAHA Informatics Committee, reported AAHA is working on development of a method to collect clinical data from clinical practices. Coordination and cooperation with others working in the same area is requested.

American Veterinary Medical Association, Informatics Committee

Dr. Ken Boschert, member of the AVMA Informatics Committee, reported AVMA continues to develop the SNOMED International nomenclature with the College of American Pathologists. AVMA is also working with continuation and enhancement of the Veterinary Medical Database and with electronic member communication on the Network of Animal Health on CompuServe. The AVMA has also funded an increased World Wide Web presence and plans to take over operation of the NetVet web site.

American College of Veterinary Informatics

Dr. Ron Smith reported the new registered agent of the Incorporated ACVI is Dr. Bruce Little, Executive Director of the AVMA. ACVI, which is doing business as the American Academy of Veterinary Informatics, two goals are to achieve specialty status and to promote the discipline of Veterinary Informatics.

Veterinary Informatics Standards Organization

President Art Smith reported VISO is seeking to increase its association with veterinary clinicians and other veterinarians. VISO believes an association with the AVI is in the best interests of the profession. VISO will be holding working meetings and a business meeting later during the 1996 AVMA annual meeting.

Report from the AVI President

Dr. Noell Moseley reported the 1996 Dick Talbot Memorial AVI Informatics Symposium was an unqualified success. All sessions were well attended and interest was high. AVI plans to reorganize as an umbrella organization providing support for AVI working groups, the ACVI, and the VISO. A review of the bylaws and a vote of the general membership by mail may be required to accomplish the reorganization.

A new AVI logo has not been selected.

Report from AVI Working Groups and Committees

Communications and Practice Management Working Groups have not met, nor has the Education Committee.

Computer Assisted Instruction

Dr. Cheryl Dhein, Chair of the CAI Working Group, reported a web site for the CAI has been created. (http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/avcai/avcai.html). The working group wants to publish on the site descriptions of CAI projects and reviews of tools used for development of CAI. The working group also believes it is important to develop a means to validate, review and accredit CAI projects. Copyright issues are also being considered by the group including. A release form to be signed by animal owners to enable use of images of their animals is being posted on the web site.

Electronic Medical Records and Standards

Dr. Frank Pollari, Chair of the Electronic Medical Records group, reported that a joint meeting was held with the Standards working group. Problems associated with electronic medical records were discussed and users of the information contained in electronic medical records were identified. A mission statement for the group will be developed. Further discussions of the group will occur online on the VetInfo list. To enroll on the VetInfo list send a message to listserv@wu.vmd.wustl.edu with subscribe vetinfo FirstName LastName in the body of the message. The working group plans to move to more specific projects such as defining functions an electronic medical record systems will contain.

PRODUCT AVAILABILITY/REVIEWS/COMPARISONS

HandiSTATUS Version 1.31 Now Available
From: TBERNARD@iica.ac.cr (Theresa Bernardo)

HandiSTATUS version 1.31 is now available via FTP. This version has important new features. In particular, functions that allow users to maintain their own data and notes (see file HSTUTD.ENG). For those of you who are not familiar with the program see "about HandiSTATUS" below.

The following is an example of an FTP session to download HandiSTATUS via FTP, which you should be able to replicate on your own system (remember that it is case sensitive):

ftp tlaloc.iica.ac.cr
Remote User Name: hstatus
Remote Password: internet1
ftp> binary
ftp> cd english

(there is a choice of English, French or Spanish, however HandiSTATUS has been unloaded it is still possible to change the language from within the program.)

ftp> dir
total 4332
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root other 1737 Aug 06 17:01 CONFIG.MEM
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root other 1389072 Aug 06 17:01 HS_0196.EXE
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root other 762727 Aug 06 17:01 HS_D.EXE
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root other 50074 Aug 06 17:01 INSTALL.EXE
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root other 112 Aug 06 17:06 MANUAL
ftp> mget * (or get the specific files you want in upper case) mget CONFIG.MEM
?(n==don't,a==do all,q=do no more,y==do)
?a
ftp> quit

This will transfer all of the program files and manual files. If you want to transfer manual files separately change to the directory MANUAL (cd MANUAL) and get the file(s) you want.

HS version 1.31 consists of the four files found in the subdirectory english:

CONFIG.MEM
INSTALL.EXE (the installation program)
HS_0196.EXE (a compressed file of the main program)
HS_D.EXE (a compressed file of disease distribution data for the years 1990 - 1993)

If you have downloaded the HandiSTATUS files to the subdirectory where you wish to use them, you can unpack the compressed executable files by typing the filename (minus the extension .EXE) and pressing [Enter]. For example, to unpack the files in HS_0196.EXE type HS_0196[Enter]. Once you have unpacked the files type HS[Enter] to begin the program. You may wish to erase the original compressed files to free up disk space.

If you wish to move HandiSTATUS to another machine, or distribute one or more copies to colleagues, copy the files config.mem, install.exe and HS0196.exe to one high density diskette and label it as diskette one of two (1/2). Copy HS_D.exe to another high density diskette and label it as diskette two of two (2/2). To install the program, log to the floppy drive where you have inserted diskette 1 and type install[Enter], then follow the instructions that appear on the screen.

The manual is available in different formats in the subdirectory Manual:

HANDIREF.ENG (previous version of the manual in WordPerfect 5.1)
HSTUTD.ENG (updates to previous version of manual in WP5.1)
HSMAN2_A.DOC (new manual in Word for Windows 2.0)
HSMAN2_A.MCW (new manual in Word for Macintosh 5.0)

Channel capacity into Costa Rica is limited so it is recommended that you try off-peak hours. If you encounter any error messages while unpacking compressed files an error may have occurred in transmission so try downloading the files again. If you have other any problems or suggestions please send them to TBernard@iica.ac.cr.

Dr. Theresa Bernardo; Agricultural Health; IICA Sede Central; Apdo. 55-2200 Coronado; COSTA RICA
Fax: (506) 229-47-41; Tel: (506) 229-02-22 ext 2652

About HandiSTATUS:

The database HandiSTATUS: Help with World Animal Disease Status, is in use in more than 100 countries from around the world. It provides information (both textual and mapped displays) on the global distribution of diseases that must be considered in the international trade of animals and animal commodities.

The program will operate in English, French or Spanish. It features maps of distribution of List A, B (OIE/FAO) and List C (FAO) diseases (by region and by species affected). In addition to assisting in risk identification for import/export decisions, it provides access to the OIE's International Animal Health Code recommendations for safe importation of products, lists of reference laboratories and information on disease transmission.

To help fulfill the need for updated and/or validated data, users can now generate and maintain their own data on disease distribution. Users can also include notes by country, by disease, or by country and disease.

The program now requires 9.5 MB of hard disk space due to the additional years' data. This will increase to 10.5 MB if you generate user data and will expand according to the volume of notes that you add. If you need to recover some of this space it is possible to delete the data for one or more years. For example, you could delete the data for 1990 as follows: del ??????90.*[Enter]. To delete other years' data, just substitute the year (eg. 91 or 92) in place of 90. If the year for which data is deleted was the selected year in HandiSTATUS, a software error will occur the next time HandiSTATUS is run.

The release of version 1.31 marks the completion of HandiSTATUS development by Charles Schotman and Theresa Bernardo. Future updating and development will be the responsibility of the OIE. Requests for the new manual or future updates of the program should be addressed to the OIE Central Bureau:

Dr. Thierry Chillaud; Information and International Trade; Office International des Epizooties (OIE); 12, rue de Prony; 75017 Paris, FRANCE
Tel: (33-1) 44 15 18 88; Fax: (33-1) 42 67 09 87

HandiSTATUS should soon be available at various web-sites around the world, such as the OIE Central Bureau in France (http://www.oie.org) and Epivetnet in New Zealand (http://www.massey.ac.nz/~wwvetsci/epihome.htm).

The OIE has also assumed responsibility for conducting pilot testing of HandiREPORT - a specialized copy of the program for completion of emergency, monthly and annual reports for submission to the appropriate international organizations. HandiREPORT will be for the exclusive use of the appropriate government authority in each country.

The following organizations have made financial contributions toward the development of HandiSTATUS: the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the OIE, the University of Guelph/Agriculture Canada/Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA/APHIS). Please feel free to copy the program and distribute it to any other interested persons.

INTERNET RESOURCES

Radiological Society of North America Electronic Journal

The RSNA Electronic Journal, or RSNA EJ, is an electronic journal created and distributed on the Internet. Its purpose is to use the medium of the Internet to improve the communication of scientific and clinical research in radiology. The URL is...

http://ej.rsna.org/

The content of RSNA EJ covers every area of radiology from organ systems to imaging modalities and other technology (including computers in radiology). In addition to the criteria traditionally used in evaluating material for publication, articles should be selected on the basis of their distinctive suitability for electronic publication.

Editor: Laurens V. Ackerman, MD, PhD
E-mail: ackerman@ej.rsna.org

Internet Medical Terminology Resources
From: Josef Ingenerf <ingenerf@gsf.de>

I have prepared a comprehensive, clear structured set of pages with annotated links to the topic INTERNET MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY RESOURCES with the startpage under

http://www.gsf.de/MEDWIS/activity/med_term.html

that might be of help for all those people who are looking for organisations, research groups, documents and publications, software and vocabularies, interactive online access to applications and other resource lists.

They are marked as online or not online available and for the second one a seperate bibliography is added. The resources are devided in sections:

- Diseases and Procedure Classification (German View)
--(ICD-9, ICD-10, OP-301, DIMDI, AWMF, ...)

- Diseases and Procedure Classification (International View)
--(ICD-9-CM, ICD-10, CPT, DRGs, WHO, SESAME, ...)

- Other Medical Vocabularies
--(SNOMED, MeSH, Read-Code, ...)

- Integrated Vocabularies & Internet-/Intranet-based Applications
--(UMLS, InterMED, Cliniweb, ...)

- Formal Reconstruction of Medical Vocabularies
--(GALEN, CANON, SIR, ...)

- Standards in Medicine
--(Vocabularies, Patient Records, Communication, Knowledge Bases, ...)

- Other Associated Topics
--(Terminology, Ontology, AI & Knowledge Repres., Comp. Linguistics, ...)

It would be nice, if you can add this link to the MMATRIX-list section Clinical Practise, item Classification.

Dr. Josef Ingenerf; GSF-Medis Institut; Postfach 11 29; 85758 Oberschleissheim/Munich, Germany; Tel.: 089/3187-4164; Fax: 089/3187-3370; www: http://www.gsf.de/MEDWIS/ji.html

KENNEL-L - Kennel Management Discussion Group

The contact name and address are changed.

KENNEL-L is a private, moderated discussion list dedicated to Kennel Management issues. This list was established to provide a forum for anyone interested in the management of boarding kennels or the pet services industry.

To subscribe, send the following command in the BODY of mail to

LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
SUB KENNEL-L your full name

Moderator: Pati Hatfield <hatfield@southeast.net>

Livestock Weekly
From: bfrank@livestockweekly.com
http://www.livestockweekly.com

Weekly livestock publication featuring cattle, sheep, goats. Advertising for ranches, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, farms, employment, business opportunities, feed, seed, hunting, exotics, pasture.

BRAVENET - Brazilian Veterinary Web Sites
From: "Mauricio Garcia, DVM, MS, PhD" <mauricio@TECHNOVET.COM.BR>

Friends! Please, note that BRAVENET URL has changed to:

http://www.technovet.com.br/bravenet/

BRAVENET is a collection of brazilian veterinary sites.

Mauricio Garcia, DVM, MS, PhD
Address: Rua Jacui, 90 - CEP 04.053-010; Sao Paulo, SP, BRAZIL
E-mail: mauricio@technovet.com.br
InterNet: http://www.technovet.com.br/
Phone/Fax: +55-11-5589-2716

HOSPITAL-WEBMASTER - Internet and medical Information
From: BOYER Celia <Celia.Boyer@hon.ch>

The HOSPITAL-WEBMASTER list is, also, available on the Health On the Net Foundation web site (automatic subscription and previous E-mail listed by subject, date and authors) at:

http://www.hon.ch/MailingList/hospital-webmaster.html

The HOSPITAL-WEBMASTER list is specially suited but not only for medical web site webmasters, for the most effective creation and use of Web applications for medical purposes. At present, the purposes of the HOSPITAL-WEBMASTER list are two-fold:

- Exchanging information and ideas with other hospital webmasters.

- Providing a world-wide communication-forum for all aspects of Internet technology applied to the medical domain.

To subscribe please send mail with this form:

From: Your name
To: HON-LIST@hon.ch
Subject:
Body:

subscribe Hospital-Webmaster Your name <Your email address>

Do not fill in the "Subject:" field. After subscription, to post to the list reply to:

Hospital-Webmaster@hon.ch

Owner: Celia Boyer Hospital-Webmaster-owner@hon.ch

NAHMS Homepage
From: ddargatz@aphis.usda.gov (Dave Dargatz)

This message is to inform you that National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) information (such as U.S. dairy, beef cow-calf, beef feedlot, and swine health and management reports) is now accessible (and searchable) via our new homepage.

The Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH) have just posted a Home Page on the World Wide Web (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah)!

NAHMS reports and info sheets since 1991 are among the information files included under the Center for Animal Health Monitoring, most through searchable .pdf files. We hope the web page will help us reach new information users and make it easier for our existing customers to find needed information.

We would like immediate feedback from NAHMS information users! Please let us know what you think about content, user-friendliness, or anything else of interest through NAHMS_info@aphis.usda.gov. Automatic e-mail opportunities are built into the Home Page at several points.

Dave Dargatz, DVM, PhD; Beef Specialist; USDA-APHIS-Veterinary Services; Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health 555 S. Howes; Ft. Collins, CO 80521
(970) 490-8000; (970) 490-7899 (fax)
e-mail: ddargatz@aphis.usda.gov

NEWS AND COMMENTARY

Flashback: The Technological Revolution
From: Edupage, 28 December 1995

The December 18th edition of Digital Media magazine points to the Web site of The Atlantic Monthly and says "This compilation of articles by MIT intellectuals Vannevar Bush and Martin Greenberger are harbingers of the networked infoculture of today, written respectively in 1945 and 1964. Bush, a former MIT president and government war researcher, called for efforts and progress in information access that resemble current hypertext, while Greenberger, a computer scientist, uses Bush's proposals to outline the new market possibilities for information services, online commerce and community. These gems from the past are a testament to The Atlantic's commitment to the significance of ideas at

<http://www2.theAtlantic.com/atlantic/atlweb/flashbks/computer/tech.htm>

(Digital Media 18 Dec 95 p27).

In the article he wrote more than three decades ago, Greenberger made the visionary prediction: "Barring unforeseen obstacles, an on-line interactive computer service, provided commercially by an information utility, may be as commonplace by 2000 AD as telephone service is today. By 2000 AD man should have a much better comprehension of himself and his system, not because he will be innately any smarter than he is today, but because he will have learned to use imaginatively the most powerful amplifier of intelligence yet devised."

An in-depth interview with Martin Greenberger will be featured in the March/April issue of Educom Review.

What People Put Up With on the Web
"EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List" <edupage@elanor.oit.unc.edu>

World Wide Web developer Tim Berners-Lee never intended for ordinary folk to have to learn "http://" addresses and HTML formatting: "The original ideal was that anybody would very easily be able to write documents that could be connected through hypertext links. What has surprised me is the way people have been prepared to put up with manually encoding text. HTML was never supposed to be something that you would see -- it was intended to be something produced by an editor program. An analogy is with word processors. Computer users don't have to write in all kinds of codes to format their document with fonts, margins and so on. So it staggers me that people have actually put up with having to write HTML by hand. Similarly, I had not expected people to have to work out the hypertext links by looking up and typing in those long, complex codes for addressing. URL syntax was never intended for human consumption. It was intended for a machine." (Technology Review Jul 96 p32)

NLM/AHCPR Large Scale Vocabulary Test
From: wth@nlm.nih.gov

NLM and AHCPR are sponsoring a test to determine the extent to which a group of controlled vocabularies, taken as a set, cover the concepts and terms needed in automated health care and public health systems. The test relies heavily on UMLS technology. We are hoping for broad participation from those engaged in developing and using health data systems.

To review the purpose of the test, the procedures to be followed, and a sample interaction with the special tester's interface, consult the "New & Noteworthy" section on NLM's web site (www.nlm.nih.gov).

To participate, testers will need their own IP address, a fast Internet connection (modem access is not recommended), and a powerful workstation with the latest version of Netscape (version 2.01 or higher).

Those who wish to participate in the Large Scale Vocabulary test should register by sending the following information in a message addressed to umlsks@nlm.nih.gov

Full Name
Mailing Address
telephone number
email address
IP address

When NLM is ready to receive test input (probably within the next two weeks), those who have registered with be sent a message with the URL of the test interface. All test data must be submitted by December 15, 1996.

Interested consortia, organizations, or individuals with a minimum of 1,000 discrete concepts useful in health care or public health applications may compete for funds to support test participation. A request for quotations for this competitive procurement will be issued within the next several weeks. It will be announced in the Grants and Contracts section of NLM's web site. Please note that successful bidders will be reimbursed only for testing done AFTER they are awarded a purchase order by NLM.

Study on Rural Internet Use
From: Rural Extension Studies Survey <survey@tdg.res.uoguelph.ca>

Rural areas are often at a disadvantage when trying to access emerging technologies. A group of researchers at the University of Guelph are exploring how rural residents are able to access, use, and adapt to the Internet.

The purpose of this study is to determine how rural residents differ from urban residents in their use of the Internet, and to determine the impact of Internet use on agriculture and agriculture related businesses. The information gathered will be used to help eliminate barriers to Internet use, and to improve the quality of Internet services offered to rural residents.

Responses to the survey will be completely anonymous, however once the survey has been completed, participants will be offered the opportunity to enter a draw for a free pass to an upcoming conference on Rural Telecommunications, and a University of Guelph sweatshirt and baseball cap.

Your assistance would be valuable to this study. Please take the time to fill out the survey and alert others of it's existence. The survey and more information regarding the study is located at:

Internet use in Rural Areas http://tdg.uoguelph.ca/rural/

For those who do not have web access, an alternative format is available on request. Please send a message to survey@tdg.uoguelph.ca for more information.

Thank you for your assistance,

Don Richardson, Linda Mayhew and Wendy Truelove

EpiVetNet Newsletter and Web Site Update
From: "Dirk U. Pfeiffer" <D.U.Pfeiffer@massey.ac.nz>

Hello Epivet-L'ers,

just a few bits of information about EpiVetNet, the WWW site which we have made available in April this year. For those who do not know, its address is

http://epiweb.massey.ac.nz

The response has been really good judging from the number of connections from computers all around the world. These hits are actually logged, so that we can monitor the interest to the site as well as to individual pages and items available. So beware, Big Brother is watching you !!!! But don't worry, the system does not tell me who you are, only what the name of your computer is !

I also had a number of positive and encouraging responses from individuals through electronic mail. Thanks very much !

In terms of the additions and corrections which people have asked me to implement, I apologize for sometimes taking a while to get them done. At the moment, I think, I have done everything I have been asked to do. But please remember, my webmaster activity is something I usually do after hours.

Given the recent advances (?) in web browser software I have changed the appearance of EpiVetNet by introducing an interface based on frames. I am also making extensive usage of tables which require a web browser understanding a recent version of HTML, the language these web pages are written in. The old interface will still be available in that browsers not capable of frames will automatically show the old interface. In order to see the frames you will need a reasonably recent web browser such as MS Internet Explorer 3.0 (can be downloaded for free from Microsoft web site). Please let me know if there are problems with this new interface or with the links on some of the pages. Some of the links are very slow and you may get an error message due to an overloaded connection to the particular site.

To my surprise, I have not had comments in terms of the connection to our site being too slow. May be, the world truly is a global village after all.

In terms of additions, I have added more publications (only my own as nobody so far has supplied theirs) in Adobe Acrobat format. Have moved away from Postscript following the current trend towards Acrobat as a safe (can add security), efficient (good compresssion) and portable (Windows, Unix, Mac etc.) document format. It allows people to read the document on screen, print the whole or only sections. The new web browsers allow reading these files during the downloading process. So it may even help protecting a couple of trees from being felled. Remember that the reader for these Acrobat files is free and can be downloaded from the Adobe web site. If people have problems obtaining it, send me a message and I will post it as an attachment to an e-mail.

This particular format is currently being evaluated in terms of its usefulness for submitting manuscripts to Preventive Veterinary Medicine. It could potentially speed up the refereeing process substantially. May be, that is !! Apparently some journals are already doing it !

I am currently preparing the proceedings of a seminar on primary animal health care in Southern Africa which was held in Feb/Mar in Malawi and plan to make the contributions available as Acrobat files.

We had the second PanPacific conference of the Australian / New Zealand veterinary associations this year in Christchurch and I am trying to convince Joanna McKenzie hope she is going to read this) to make the proceedings of the epidemiology sessions (which Joanna did a great job at organizing) available as Acrobat files. They include two papers by Hollis Erb who taught us amongst other things about path analysis. If anybody wants a paper copy, contact Joanna McKenzie (check out e-mail directory on EpiVetNet), but you will have to pay !@#$#

I am also investigating if it is useful to make presentations available through the Internet, such as Powerpoint presentations (through Active Movie Player) which can be saved in a specific format that allows display through the web browser.

Klaas Frankena has indicated that it might be possible to make the proceedings of the annual meetings of the Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine available using the Acrobat format.

I have had discussions with Michael Ward regarding the newsletter which is being produced by the Epidemiology Chapter of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists and could possibly be made available through a web site.

I think we should also make datasets available which can be used by people for teaching purposes. So far, I have provided my lecture notes and added the exercises which I am using for undergraduate teaching. I hope to place the notes for the Master of Veterinary Studies (Epidemiology) on the site as well. But that will take a while as we have just started teaching this course last year. My approach with these notes is that they should not replace the lectures, meaning that students still have to attend the lectures in order to make sense of the notes. Otherwise I would be better off writing a textbook and even be able to make some money out of it.

I have also added a new table of contacts listing the various national and international groups acting as a forum for people with common interests in veterinary epidemiology. I would like to ask people to contribute addresses etc..

In the software section I have updated a couple of references and added a link to Win Episcope (very useful as the epidemiologist's Swiss army knife) by Ignacio de Blas, Camelo Ortega, Klaas Frankena and Jos Noordhuizen as well as made the software HerdAcc by David Jordan (great for solving these herd sensitivity/specificity mysteries) available for download. If there is anything else, please let me know !!!!!

The PC which has been serving the web site for the first couple of months has been sick for two weeks now (after we upgraded it to a 2 Gb hard disk) and therefore my office PC is acting as the web server at the moment (I wonder if anybody noticed). People should not notice any difference and the address is still the same. The connection might be a bit slow when you catch me manipulating data, but that is usually when most other people in the world are at sleep or at home (except for the Kiwis and Wallabies, of course).

Dr. Dirk Pfeiffer; Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology; Course Director Master of Veterinary Studies (Epidemiology); Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences,;Massey University; Palmerston North, NEW ZEALAND

Funds Awarded for Study of International Classification of Diseases
From: Leigh Star <s-star1@UIUC.EDU>

Geof Bowker and I are happy to announce that we have been awarded a grant of $181,463 by the NSF for support of a research project on the history and sociology of classification entitled:

"The Quiet Politics of Voice: A Comparative Study of Classification and Information Infrastructure."

A quick description from the project summary: "Very large information systems embody values which are often invisible, embedded in layers of infrastructure. The 'quiet politics' of information interchange protocols or how insurance data are encoded often have substantial impact on people's lives, yet are often inaccessible to public debate...We propose to examine the design, development and use of two classification systems, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC)....For comparative purposes and to increase the depth of the analysis, we will also look at similar developments in library and racial classification schemes. Our analytic focus is on understanding how large-scale information infrastructures (both computerized and non-computerized) embed values and politics in a variety of settings. We are especially interested in routine, even boring aspects of information encoding, such as the degree of precision awarded to codes for particuar conditions or procedures...important public and scientific conseuences may come from less obvious classification decisions, and encode moral order in subtle fashion."

Susan Leigh Star

Graduate School of Library and Information Science; University of Illinois; 123 LIS Building; 501 East Daniel St.; Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 244-3280; FAX: (217) 244-3302; email: s-star1@uiuc.edu

MEETINGS AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

See the informatics section of NetVet for a more complete and current list of informatics-related activities at <http://netvet.wustl.edu/info.htm>

January 18-22, 1997
Classification and Concepts Conference; Jacksonville, FL

The International Medical Informatics Association is sponsoring its Fourth International Conference on Medical Concept Representation in Jacksonville Florida, during January, 1997. Following the traditions of Ottowa 1984, Geneva 1988, and Vevey 1994, the conference will represent the state of the art thinking and developments in healthcare classification, terminology models, cognitive evaluations of interfaces and term navigation, and medical language processing. The conference will be held at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, along the Atlantic coast of Florida just below Jacksonville. It will run Sunday, January 18, 1997 through Wednesday, January 22. Meeting details and registration are available at:

http://www.cmt.org/WG6/conf

Speakers are by invitation only. Participating observers are strictly limited to 75, on a first come, first serve basis.

We expect the final proceedings to be published as either a monograph (as in '84 and '88) or a special journal issue ('94). The program committee is: Christopher G. Chute, USA, Chair; Robert Baud, Switzerland, for Natural Language Processing; James Cimino, USA, for Clinical Classifications; Vimla Patel, Canada, for Cognitive Evaluation; and Alan Rector, UK, for Terminology Models. Professor J. R. Scherrer, Geneva, will keynote the conference. Dr. Edward Sondik, new director of the National Center for Health Statistics in Washington, has been invited to deliver the dinner address.

The conference secretariat is:

Karen Elias; Department of Health Sciences Res.; 200 First Street, HA 675; Mayo Foundation; Rochester, MN 55905, USA
Tel: 507 284 5541; Fax: +1 507 284 1516; Email: elias@mayo.edu
http://www.cmt.org/WG6/conf

April 23-25, 1997
1997 Computers in Healthcare Education Symposium; Philadelphia, PA
(See the July-August, 1996 AVI Newsletter for details)

September 10-14, 1997
Veterinary Informatics at the 5th World Equine Veterinary Association; Padova, Italy
(See the July-August, 1996 AVI Newsletter for details)

ROADMAP96 - The Roadmap96 Workshop
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen <crispen@campus.mci.net>

ROADMAP96 on LISTSERV@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET

(*Please pay particular attention to the three "notes" at the bottom of this announcement*)

ROADMAP96 is a 27-lesson, Internet training workshop designed to teach new "Net travelers" how to travel around the rapidly expanding (and often-times confusing) "Information Superhighway" without getting lost. The original Roadmap workshop, which debuted in the Fall of 1994, rapidly became the most popular on-line Internet training workshop in history. ROADMAP96 is a completely revised and updated version of the original Roadmap workshop. ROADMAP96's lessons are primarily written for people with accounts on command-line systems (like UNIX, VAX, and VM), but EVERYONE is welcome to participate in the workshop!

The entire ROADMAP96 workshop will take place on the ROADMAP96 list (ROADMAP96 is a distribution list, not a discussion list). ROADMAP96 covers: E-mail; LISTSERVs, Majordomo, Listproc, and other e-mail distribution systems; Usenet; FTP; Archie; Gopher; Veronica; Address Searches; the Web; and many other topics. Since a number of ROADMAP96's participants only have e-mail access to the Internet, the ROADMAP96 workshop lessons will also teach you how to access many of the Internet's tools (FTP, Archie, Gopher, etc.) through e-mail!

Thanks to the kind folks at the Internet Network Information Center (the InterNIC), ROADMAP96 now has a permanent home ... and new ROADMAP96 workshop start every two weeks! All you have to do to participate in one of the free Roadmap96 workshop sessions is subscribe to the ROADMAP96 e-mail distribution list!

To be a part of the next ROADMAP96 workshop session -- new sessions start every two weeks -- just send an e-mail letter to

LISTSERV@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET

with the command

SUBSCRIBE ROADMAP96 YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME

in the body of your e-mail letter, replacing YOURFIRSTNAME and YOURLASTNAME with your first and last names.

Owner: Patrick Douglas Crispen crispen@campus.mci.net

NOTES:

1) I am *still* working on a Web workshop (called "Atlas") that I hope to introduce this Fall. I just want y'all to be aware that Roadmap96 is not "Atlas."

2) You *must* use the command