Elsevier Enhances MD
Consult, Giving Physicians Faster Access
Other Topics: Bariatric
Device, Memory Assessment
Technology
ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet
May 3, 2007
'Clinically Clever' Search Improves Query Interpretation and
Generates Results Organized by how Physicians Diagnose and Treat
Patients; Free MD Consult Access During May 2007
St. Louis, MO -- Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific,
technical and medical information products and services, has
enhanced MD Consult, its online clinical reference tool, to
accelerate access to information and educational content for
better diagnosis and treatment.
Search results for the most common queries are tailored to each
stage of the diagnostic and clinical workup, starting with
assessing a patient's signs and symptoms, then moving on to
diagnosis, treatment, potential complications, and prognosis. |
"Clinicians want
fast, concise answers at the point of care, and they want to
have access to the most important information about a medical
condition from high-quality trusted resources," says Dr.
Jonathan Teich, an attending physician in emergency medicine at
Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Chief Medical
Informatics Officer at Elsevier.
"The new user interface and smarter search tools enable
healthcare professionals to quickly access information in
formats they can put to immediate use."
To encourage use of the new enhanced MD Consult, Elsevier is
offering free access to MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com)
throughout May 2007. During this time users can test the site
without a paid subscription.
Enhancements
MD Consult revamped its search capabilities and user interface
through an extensive process involving input from physicians,
medical students, librarians, and other health care
professionals around the world. Customers participated in
individual interviews, usability tests, focus groups, surveys,
collaborative design sessions, and live, observational tests of
sample searches.
Innovations in the new version of MD Consult include:
- Recommended results for top
searches: Recommended results pages for the most popular
search queries within MD Consult are organized according to
how physicians diagnose and treat patients.
- Additional search
recommendations: MD Consult proactively guides clinicians to
add details or refinements to more general searches. For
instance, typing in a term such as "hepatitis" would return
information links immediately, and also would generate
recommendations for more specific terms such as "hepatitis A"
or "hepatitis C."
- Best resource suggestions:
MD Consult includes an extensive collection of world leading
clinical reference texts and journals. When clinicians are
searching for a specific book, author or journal, MD Consult
provides a direct link to access the desired resource.
- Easier, faster drug search:
Whether clinicians type in the brand name of a drug or its
generic equivalent, MD Consult generates a link to the correct
information, including drug indications, contraindications,
adverse reactions, FDA approvals, and safety notices.
MD Consult is an integral
component of how Elsevier is continually working to improve
outcomes in health and in the business of health. Using it,
clinicians can seek current, evidence-based and experience-based
answers to specific clinical questions, obtain general overviews
on medical topics, make patient management decisions and find
drug information.
The program also includes topical medical news and provides
patient educational materials.
"MD Consult combines the best medical content with the best
clinical reference tools to help doctors help patients," says
Brian Nairn, CEO of Elsevier's Health Sciences Division.
"Elsevier has a tradition of providing quality, reliable
information for clinicians in academic, patient care and
research settings, and now our customers will have faster access
to critical clinical information."
MD Consult now serves over 280,000 users and is licensed by more
than 1,700 health care organizations worldwide, including nearly
95 per cent of US medical schools. Subscribers search extensive
Elsevier content 1.5 million times per month and view more than
8 million pages of clinical content, primarily during daytime
practice hours.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific,
technical and Medical information products and services. Working
in partnership with the Global science and health communities,
Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70 Offices worldwide publish
more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in
addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products,
such as ScienceDirect, MD Consult, Scopus, bibliographic
databases, and online reference works.
Elsevier is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The
Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed
Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information
provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education
and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides
high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with
increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed
Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL
(London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange). |
