PEW INTERNET PROJECT RELEASES SEARCH ENGINE DATA
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a data memo sharing the most recent findings from Pew Internet & American Life tracking surveys and consumer behavior trends from the comScore Media Metrix consumer panel on the recent rise in search engine use. The September 2005 results show that about 60 million American adults are using search engines on a typical day, an increase to about 41% of total Internet users.
Pew Internet Project data document roughly 38 million users who conducted searches on any given day in June 2004 compared to about 59 million in September 2005, an increase of about 55%. The comScore data, which are derived from a different methodology, show that from September 2004 to September 2005, the average daily use of search engines jumped from 49.3 to 60.7 million users-an increase of 23%.
Data show that the use of search engines is edging up on e-mail as a primary Internet activity, although sending and receiving e-mail are still the top Internet use. About 52% of American Internet users are sending and receiving e-mail, up from 45% in June of 2004.
The data memo is now available at the Pew Web site: http://www.pewInternet.org/PPF/r/167/report_display.asp.
The Pew Internet Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of data and analysis of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world and produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, healthcare, and civic/political life.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY TEAM TO DESIGN "DREAM TOOL" FOR LIFE, SOCIAL SCIENCES RESEARCH
Indiana University has received a US$1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the information technology needed to study large-scale networks in a variety of scientific domains.
When completed, the cyberinfrastructure will provide an online data-code-computing resource for researchers, educators, and practitioners. It will primarily support biomedical, social and behavioral science, and physics research, but can be used to study other networks as well.
Biologists could use this cyberinfrastructure to analyze and consolidate data to better understand the dynamics of genes and proteins and assess mutations in diseases to develop new drugs for treatment. Epidemiologists can more accurately forecast and visualize the spread of a pandemic influenza strain or emergent diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Internet researchers might apply similar methods to understand the spread of viruses in technological networks, and social and behavioral scientists may study social networks or analyze and predict the structure and evolution of scientific disciplines.
Team members hope that this shared cyberinfrastructure will not only provide easy access to network science theory and tools generated in diverse fields, but also help increase understanding of the ecology of networks.
BD.ID PATIENT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR SPECIMEN MANAGEMENT IMPROVES LABORATORY EFFICIENCY AND REDUCES POTENTIAL FOR MEDICAL ERRORS
BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co), has announced successful implementation of the latest version of its BD.id Patient Identification System for managing the specimen collection process at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in western Tennessee.
The BD.id System is designed to enhance patient safety by reducing the potential for errors during blood, urine, or other specimen collection and streamline the process by linking test results back to the correct patient.
The BD.id System safeguards specimen collection and management with bedside bar-coding technology. Specimen collection orders from the hospital's laboratory information system are downloaded to the BD.id server and transmitted to handheld computers containing a bar-code scanner. A healthcare professional scans his or her identification badge, then the patient's bar-coded wristband to verify the patient's identity. The handheld computer prints a specimen label at the bedside that lists the healthcare professional who collected the sample, patient name, date and time of collection, container type, and test ordered.
The BD.id System's wireless capabilities (available with version 6.1) allow hospital staff to download specimen orders immediately and to transfer collection status information into the laboratory information system at any time.
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NEO FREE FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK
Caelo Software Inc, an e-mail productivity software company, has announced the release of NEO Free. This free downloadable software for Microsoft Outlook offers features from the company's premiere product, NEO Pro, which has been praised by Microsoft Press Inside Out, PC Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNET, PCWorld, and USA Today.
NEO Free is a full-featured version which auto-organizes Outlook e-mail; it is not trial ware, crippled, or supported by advertising. NEO Free implements "wordwheel" functionality that will not be available in Microsoft products until the release of Vista; it automatically organizes e-mail into correspondent folders displaying sent and received mail and separates bulk subscription mail from correspondent mail for better prioritization.
Caelo is giving away NEO Free because the company hopes to attract users by word-of-mouth and that users will upgrade to NEO Pro for the product's more powerful features.
To watch a brief overview of product features, visit the Web site: http://www.emailorganizer.com/products/webinars/NEOFree_tutorial.html.
To download NEO Free 3.1, visit the Web site: http://www.emailorganizer.com/products/download_neofree.php.
Caelo Software Inc. is dedicated to developing software productivity solutions to help people cope with "e-mail overload."
For more information on the company, visit http://www.emailorganizer.com.
EBSCO ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF DYNAMED FOR PDA AND HEALTH LIBRARY, CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION DATABASE
EBSCO Publishing has announced the availability of two products, DynaMed for personal digital assistant (PDA) and Health Library, a patient education service for hospital and medical facility Web sites.
DynaMed subscribers can now gain access to the database by PDA. Users can choose to download or access a live version of the database.
DynaMed was created by a physician for physicians and other healthcare professionals as a point-of-care clinical reference tool to replace textbook and article searches. It offers clinically organized summaries for more than 1,800 topics. A topical menu allows users to search for information synthesized from publications, associations, and contributing clinicians. DynaMed is updated daily, and 10 journal review services monitor the content of more than 400 medical journals cover-to-cover, evaluating each article for clinical relevance and scientific validity. Please visit http://www.dynamicmedical.com for additional information regarding DynaMed.
Health Library can be used by hospitals, public libraries, or corporations seeking to provide patrons and employees with resources on conditions and procedures, interactive tools, the latest news from medical journals, and more than 75 extensive Wellness and Therapeutic Centers. Content is written for the lay reader and organized from basic to in-depth to comprehensive. Articles reflect national clinical practice guidelines and are free of racial, gender, or other bias.
Content is evidence-based, reviewed by experts before it is made available to end-users, and updated on a regular basis to reflect the most recent information and research available.
The patient information available in Health Library can assist a hospital in meeting Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization standards; proprietary content meets URAC's 53 standards for accreditation. Different levels of integration enable even hospitals with limited Web resources to incorporate Health Library into their community pages.
Health Library can also be used by corporations to increase employee awareness of the latest medical research with interactive graphical resources, self-assessment tools, and healthy-living calculators.
For more information, visit EBSCO Publishing at http://www.ebsco.com.
SKYSCAPE INTRODUCES OXFORD HANDBOOK OF ACUTE MEDICINE, 2ND EDITION FOR HANDHELD DEVICES
Skyscape, Inc, has announced the release of the Oxford Handbook of Acute Medicine, formatted specially for use by healthcare providers on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones.
Published by Oxford University Press, the reference relates pathophysiology to clinical features for quick diagnosis of the acutely ill patient, identifies priorities for treatment, and provides step-by-step management while awaiting specialist help. Published guidelines have been incorporated to ensure reflection of current recommendations and evidence-based treatments. Details of specialist treatments for the patient's likely ongoing care are included.
The title also features Skyscape's smARTlink technology, enabling cross-indexing with other clinical and drug prescription products from Skyscape for an integrated source of information.
Skyscape produces more than 300 medical references in over 30 medicalfs specialties. Practitioners can purchase the references or download free trial versions by visiting http://www.skyscape.com/estore/ProductDetail. aspx?ProductId=1427, or by calling 1-800-460-6500.
KRAMES ANNOUNCES KRAMES ONLINE AND INFORMATION THERAPY
Krames On-Demand (KOD) is a print-on-demand patient education solution designed for hospitals and health systems featuring more than 4,400 single topic HealthSheets available in English and Spanish in 37 topic areas.
Krames now offers a new service, Krames On-Line (KOL), a consumer-friendly online library designed for patients visiting healthcare organization Web sites. The KOL collection of HealthSheets and medication sheets is similar to KOD, but designed for patients to view, print, and e-mail from a personal computer.
Krames is also offering Information Therapy, which provides direct access to personalized patient education packets. Clinicians e-mail education materials to patients at a password-protected Web site before and after a hospital visit. Information Therapy allows patients to review health information and physician instructions from hospital bedside stations or in the privacy of their homes.
For more information, please visit http://www.krames.com.