World Wide Web resources for family physicians.
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As online information portals accumulate metadata descriptions of Web resources, it becomes necessary to develop effective ways for visualising and navigating the resultant huge metadata repositories as well as the different semantic relationships and attributes of described Web resources. Graphical maps provide a good method to visualise, understand and navigate a world that is too large and complex to be seen directly like the Web. Several examples of maps designed as a navigational aid for Web resources are presented in this review with an emphasis on maps of medical and health-related resources. The latter include HealthCyberMap maps http://healthcybermap.semanticweb.org/, which can be classified as conceptual information space maps, and the very abstract and geometric Visual Net maps of PubMed http://pubmed.antarcti.ca/start. Information resources can be also organised and navigated based on their geographic attributes. Some of the maps presented in this review use a Kohonen Self-Organising Map algorithm, and only HealthCyberMap uses a Geographic Information System to classify Web resource data and render the maps. Maps based on familiar metaphors taken from users' everyday life are much easier to understand. Associative and pictorial map icons that enable instant recognition and comprehension are preferred to geometric ones and are key to successful maps for browsing medical/health Internet information resources.
OBJECTIVES: This study's objective was to assess patient nutrition inquiries and related physician resources to identify the nutrition topics about which physicians most need information for patients and practice. METHODS: A survey was mailed to a 50% random sample of Washington Academy of Family Physicians (WAFP) members (n=778) to identify the top 10 patient nutrition inquiries that the physician would like to be better equipped to answer. The responding physicians' use of nutrition resources (journals, pamphlets, Web resources, toll-free numbers, and referrals to registered dietitians) was also recorded. RESULTS: A total of 306 (39.3%) physicians responded. The majority wanted more information on weight management (66.5%), followed by information on herbals, botanicals, and other complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) (36.4%) and vitamin and mineral supplements (24.4%). Other common nutrition inquiries for which respondents wanted more information included diet for prevention of disease, high protein-low carbohydrate diets, and childhood nutrition. A minority of respondents used nutrition Web resources and toll-free numbers. Nearly all respondents reported referring patients to registered dietitians. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians in our survey expressed a need for information on topics such as obesity, CAM, and life cycle and disease-specific diets. Medical nutrition educators should consider the educational needs of the practicing physician.
The increased availability of polymorphism resources for humans and high-throughput genotyping technologies account for the large number of genetic associations published every month. Resources that allow one to synthesise published data quickly and effectively are needed to keep up to date with such information. In addition, the full exploitation of data from the HapMap project will depend on the availability of tools for the analysis of clinical and phenotypic information at the genome-wide level. Here, web resources created to aid access to such data, starting from a gene, disease or pathway of interest, are reviewed.
This paper identifies Web-based resources of interest to the health policy community. Both information useful for developing health policy and information about existing health policy are included. Resources described are classified into three major categories: traditional and grey literature, statistical and epidemiological data, and legal and legislative material. National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources include MEDLINE, DIRLINE, HealthSTAR, HSRProj, and HSTAT. In addition, NLM's National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) has a Web page (http:/(/)www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/nichsr.++ +html) that provides an extensive listing of health-policy-related Web sites. Some of the other resources highlighted include those available from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS), and the Library of Congress.
Finding and evaluating information on natural products used as drugs can present challenges to the information professional. In this study, eight databases including resources retrieved on the Web were compared for relevancy and uniqueness. Ten reference questions related to natural products used as drugs were searched in the latest three year file of a number of databases, including MEDLINE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and EMBASE/Excerpta Medica. In addition, the Web was searched for relevant Internet sites using the Alta Vista search engine. EMBASE/Excerpta Medica retrieved the largest number of relevant citations for four of the ten questions. MEDLINE, the Health Reference Center, and Alta Vista each retrieved the largest numbers in two questions. Overall, the standard medical databases were the first choice for the health professional and for many lay people because of their more extensive indexing and coverage of authoritative journals.
The available web-based genome data and related resources provide great opportunities for biomedical scientists to identify functional elements in a particular genome region or to explore the evolutionary pattern of genome dynamics. Comparative genomics is an indispensable tool for achieving these goals. Because of the broad scope of comparative genomics, it is difficult to address all of its aspects in this short survey. A few currently 'hot' topics have therefore been selected and a brief review of the availability of web-based databases and software is given.
The World Wide Web is a valuable source of nutrition and health information, but the time and effort required to take advantage of this resource may stand in the way of routine use in medical education and practice. The Nutrition Academic Award (NAA) has produced numerous examples of Web-based nutrition resources, including nutrition assessment tools, patient education materials, and presentations and curricula for professional education. The University of Wisconsin Medical Nutrition Handbook provides evidence-based nutrition care guides for common clinical problems, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, lipid disorders, and the metabolic syndrome. Incorporation of these resources into medical practice may increase the provision of effective nutrition care.
An extensive Web site supporting our gross anatomy and embryology course, which includes various course management pages as well as online lectures, has been in use for the past 2 years. To determine how this Web site is being used by students, we examined server log files to track access to each of the Web pages on the site. Using this data, along with student responses on a course evaluation, we have been able to quantitatively characterize Web site use and gain some insight into students' perception of the site. This analysis showed that all of the resources available online, including course management information, exam reviews, online lectures, and dissection guides were heavily used and deemed useful by students. Despite universal computer ownership and Internet access from home, most use of the Web site was from on-campus computer labs, especially for lectures with audio streams. This was probably due to the limited bandwidth of off-campus connections. Data on the day of the week and time of the day of access showed peak activity at expected times, but also significant activity at all hours, as students took full advantage of 'access on demand.' This on-demand nature of the Web was also evident in students' viewing of lectures in short sessions rather than in one sitting. Online lectures were used regularly by a majority of students both before and after corresponding class sessions, however, this was not the preferred venue for all students. Although the flexibility of Web-based resources accommodates students' varying study habits, the alternative of traditional print material and live lectures should not be abandoned lightly.
In the last decade, high-throughput genome sequencing and complementary techniques such as microarray and proteomics have generated, and will continue to generate, ever-increasing amounts of data. These technologies of gene discovery, expression, and functional analysis have been applied to a vast array of organisms, including parasites. In most instances, the data are freely available via the Internet, and researchers are becoming increasingly reliant on up-to-date, centralized data repositories to complement wet bench science. This chapter presents an overview of resources relevant to researchers with an interest in para-site genomics and biology. After briefly touching on some of the publicly available nucleotide and protein sequence as well as domain databases, the focus turns to parasite genome projects and associated Web-based resources. A list of parasite sequencing projects current at the time of writing, including relevant Web site addresses, is provided. The available resources range from network sites and project pages at sequencing institutes to databases that integrate and curate sequence data and associated annotation with diverse biological datasets. Particular attention is given to three databases, GeneDB (http://www.genedb.org/), PlasmoDB (http://plasmodb. org/), and tigr db, detailing the scope of each database and the tools available for data querying and retrieval.
The Mouse Models of Human Cancers Consortium (MMHCC) is a collaborative program designed to derive and characterize mouse models of human malignancies. To enhance information and resource exchange among the MMHCC investigators and other cancer research scientists, the NCI Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB, http://ncicb.nci.nih.gov/) has developed web-based resources that are freely available to the cancer research community. These resources include a website (http://emice.nci.nih.gov) and databases for cancer models (http://cancermodels.nci.nih.gov) and cancer images (http://cancerimages.nci.nih.gov).
Many countries, including the United States, Canada, European Union member states, and others, require that a comprehensive search for possible alternatives be completed before beginning some or all research involving animals. Completing comprehensive alternatives searches and keeping current with information associated with alternatives to animal testing is a challenge that will be made easier as people throughout the world gain access to the Internet and World Wide Web. Numerous Internet and World Wide Web resources are available to provide guidance and other information on in vitro and other alternatives to animal testing. A comprehensive Web site is Alternatives to Animal Testing on the Web (Altweb), which serves as an online clearinghouse for resources, information, and news about alternatives to animal testing. Examples of other important Web sites include the joint one for the (US) Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) and the Norwegian Reference Centre for Laboratory Animal Science and Alternatives (The NORINA database). Internet mailing lists and online access to bulletin boards, discussion areas, newsletters, and journals are other ways to access and share information to stay current with alternatives to animal testing.
We have developed a centralized World Wide Web (WWW)-based environment that serves as a resource of software tools and expertise for biological electron microscopy. A major focus is molecular electron microscopy, but the site also includes information and links on structural biology at all levels of resolution. This site serves to help integrate or link structural biology techniques in accordance with user needs. The WWW site, called the Electron Microscopy (EM) Outreach Program (URL: http://emoutreach.sdsc.edu), provides scientists with computational and educational tools for their research and edification. In particular, we have set up a centralized resource containing course notes, references, and links to image analysis and three-dimensional reconstruction software for investigators wanting to learn about EM techniques either within or outside of their fields of expertise.
The Internet, the largest network of connected computers, provides immediate, dynamic, and downloadable information. By re-architecturing the work place and becoming familiar with Internet resources, pediatric surgeons have anticipated the informatics capabilities of this computer-based technology creating a new vision of work and organization in such areas as patient care, teaching, and research. This review aims to highlight how Internet navigational technology can be a useful educational resource in pediatric surgery, examines web pages of interest, and defines ideas of network communication. Basic Internet resources are electronic mail, discussion groups, file transfer, and the Worldwide Web (WWW). Electronic mailing is the most useful resource extending the avenue of learning to an international audience through news or list-servers groups. Pediatric Surgery List Server, the most popular discussion group, is a constant forum for exchange of ideas, difficult cases, consensus on management, and development of our specialty. The WWW provides an all-in-one medium of text, image, sound, and video. Associations, departments, educational sites, organizations, peer-reviewed scientific journals and Medline database web pages of prime interest to pediatric surgeons have been developing at an amazing pace. Future developments of technological advance nurturing our specialty will consist of online journals, telemedicine, international chatting, computer-based training for surgical education, and centralization of cyberspace information into database search sites.
OBJECTIVE: The objectives of the New York University (NYU) neurosurgery Web resource are the following: 1) to educate patients and families of patients who have neurosurgical problems, 2) to provide a forum for communication among neurosurgeons and other physicians, 3) to educate neurosurgeons, and 4) to provide neurosurgeons with resources for enhancing their practices. METHODS: The NYU neurosurgery Web resource resides on a Sun SparcStation 20, running Solaris 1.0 and National Center for Supercomputing Applications httpd 1.0. It is aimed at a broad audience that includes the general public as well as practicing neurosurgeons and other physicians. Accordingly, general information regarding a variety of neurosurgical problems is presented in easy-to-understand language. Material intended specifically for neurosurgeons, such as case discussions, is designed to stimulate discussion and encourage outside submissions. Interaction with the NYU faculty and residents may be accomplished by using electronic mail, file transfer protocol, and direct Web postings. Media in development include java applets and real-time video over the Internet. The uniform resource locator for the NYU neurosurgery Web site is "http:/(/)mcns10.med.nyu.edu/". RESULTS: The Web site has averaged 1800 accesses per month, and 5 to 10 electronic mail messages are received daily. Several patients for whom our faculty have held consultations over the Web have undergone surgery at NYU. The most popular areas of the Web site are the spinal surgery section and the brain tumors section. CONCLUSION: The ability to capitalize on the World Wide Web as a facile user is becoming an increasingly important skill for the modern neurosurgeon. In addition, Web sites published by neurosurgeons offer opportunities for communication and consultation that have previously been impossible.
We present a web-based pipeline for microarray gene expression profile analysis, GEPAS, which stands for Gene Expression Profile Analysis Suite (http://gepas.bioinfo.cnio.es). GEPAS is composed of different interconnected modules which include tools for data pre-processing, two-conditions comparison, unsupervised and supervised clustering (which include some of the most popular methods as well as home made algorithms) and several tests for differential gene expression among different classes, continuous variables or survival analysis. A multiple purpose tool for data mining, based on Gene Ontology, is also linked to the tools, which constitutes a very convenient way of analysing clustering results. On-line tutorials are available from our main web server (http://bioinfo.cnio.es).
GIDEON (Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network) is a web-based computer program designed for decision support and informatics in the field of Geographic Medicine. The first of four interactive modules generates a ranked differential diagnosis based on patient signs, symptoms, exposure history and country of disease acquisition. Additional options include syndromic disease surveillance capability and simulation of bioterrorism scenarios. The second module accesses detailed and current information regarding the status of 338 individual diseases in each of 220 countries. Over 50,000 disease images, maps and user-designed graphs may be downloaded for use in teaching and preparation of written materials. The third module is a comprehensive source on the use of 328 anti-infective drugs and vaccines, including a listing of over 9,500 international trade names. The fourth module can be used to characterize or identify any bacterium or yeast, based on laboratory phenotype. GIDEON is an up-to-date and comprehensive resource for Geographic Medicine.
Finding bioterrorism-related information on the World Wide Web can be laborious. We hope to help readers find such information more easily by summarizing essential information in a consistent framework. A panel of 7 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewers identified Web sites and evaluated them for sponsorship, mission, content usefulness, online ease of use, and adherence to commonly accepted quality criteria. Of >100 potential sites identified, 81 were chosen for target content of interest, and 43 were selected for inclusion. The results were classified into general purpose/portal sites; biological agent information; laboratory, infection control, epidemiology, and mental health information; and emergency contact sources, news and updates, event preparedness resources, information for first-responder settings, clinical and public education materials, and research resources. Agents covered included anthrax, smallpox, plague, botulism, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fever.