Archives
|
Archives |
|
| Home > NLM Archives > Document content is not current. Links may be broken. | ||
Pioneering Heart Surgeon Michael DeBakey, Senator/Physician Bill Frist Demonstrate How New Service Will Help Doctors Anywhere in the World Diagnose and Treat Patients
The National Library of Medicine will launch its new Internet Grateful Med* on April 16 at a conference on healthcare applications of the information superhighway. The conference is sponsored by the Friends of the National Library of Medicine and will be held at Georgetown University Conference Center, 3800 Reservoir Road, N.W., Washington, D.C. Press and others interested in seeing the new system are invited to attend its first public demonstration at 10:15 a.m.
"The National Library of Medicine's debut of this program could not be more timely," said Library Director Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D. "In a world where medical advances are coming at unprecedented speed, it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for even the most dedicated professional to keep up with the latest breakthroughs without the benefit of the MEDLINE database and the Internet Grateful Med."
Harold E. Varmus, M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health, of which the Library is a part, affirmed that the Internet Grateful Med will be a boon to scientists who frequently need to search the worldwide medical literature in conducting their research.
Pioneering heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., who will discuss the implications of this new technology, observed, "Information from MEDLINE is frequently critical in reaching the correct diagnosis and developing a sound treatment plan, resulting in lives saved, unnecessary treatment avoided, and hospitalization reduced." He added, "With Internet Grateful Med health professionals practicing or traveling anywhere in the world will now be able to reach MEDLINE--the most consulted medical database in the world -using the Internet and the World Wide Web."
The only physician in the United States Senate, heart and lung transplant surgeon Bill Frist (R-TN), will describe the role that MEDLINE played in his medical career and the crucial role it will play in the future of health care delivery in America. At the press event, Senator Frist will perform a live demonstration of Internet Grateful Med with a physician and patient from a Tennessee medical facility. The Senator will search MEDLINE and within minutes be able to provide the Tennessee physician with the crucial information needed for a treatment plan.
Also attending the press conference will be people whose lives have been saved or medical situations improved because of physician access to MEDLINE, including:
Press will receive complimentary time-limited access to Internet Grateful Med.
*Grateful Med is the software used for more than a decade by health professionals, scientists, and students to access the Library's MEDLINE database. The newest version of Grateful Med will now make it possible for anyone with a password and access to the Internet and the World Wide Web to search the databases.
The Library's Wide World Web address is http://www.nlm.nih.gov. He added, "Even a disciplined physician who reads two medical journals a night for an entire year before going to bed would find that he had fallen behind on his reading by over 550 years. Internet Grateful Med will be an indispensable tool for medical professionals to stay current with the latest in medical information."