NEW ELECTRONIC AND WEBBASED APPLICATIONS, SITES, AND TECHNOLOGIES
etrials Inc., a preferred partner for innovative data management technologies and services for the healthcare industry, has formed a joint marketing agreement to integrate and cross sell technology with DataScout Software Inc., a premier provider of innovative, regulatory compliant interactive voiceresponse (IVR) software solutions. The alliance enables both companies to offer more com prehensive data collection and more tightly integrated technol ogy for accelerating clinical trials. Under the terms of the agree ment, etrials is offering its customers DataScout’s IVRQuest, an interactive voiceresponse system as an alternative phone based method for collecting clinicaltrial data. DataScout also is recommendingetrials electronic data capture (EDC) software to its clients. The two technologies are integrated to assist with capturing,managing,and reporting data from phone,computer,and handheld devices. “With the increasing adaptation of EDC technology in clinical trials and with the increased importance of 21 CFR Part 11 compliance with respect to collection and validation of clinical data, we believe IVR solutions developed with IVRQuest are a very natural complement to etrials’ offerings,” says Jim Klein, DataScout’s CEO. “We are very pleased to have this opportunity to partner with etrials. It reinforces our commitment to provide the clinical research,pharmaceutical,and healthcare markets with innovative,compliant turnkey IVR solutions.” “etrials is continually scanning the technology horizon to identify tools that help our customers leverage data management improvements in the drugdevelopment process,”says John Cline, president of etrials.“This partnership allows etrials to offer an elegant and integrated solution for randomization,enrollment, and data capture.” CBI Launches NewWebsite With EASIER NAVIGATION, ENHANCEDCONTENT The Center for Business Intelligence has re designed its Website for easier navigation and with enhanced content. CBI’s Website features descriptions of upcoming conferences and enables users to download PDF ver sions of conference brochures, register, and request information.CBI’s Website also provides business pro fessionals with timely information in the pharmaceu tical,energy,and risk and insurance industries.CBI has added a list rental section, in which customers can take advantage of the CBI master file to find cus tomers.The site offers fully researched information for more than 500,000 executives worldwide. The Internet is becoming an increasingly impor tant research tool for physicians. A survey of more than 6,700 physicians — released by PERQ/HCI,a leader in pharmaceutical and healthcare related promotion research — reports that 76% of physicians use the Internet to obtain medically related information, and of those, 73% use the Internet to access medical library Websites, which are accessed more than any other type of site. The study examines various aspects of physician Internet usage including: the types of Websites visit ed, the purpose of the visit, number of hours per week spent using the Internet, importance of specific Website features, percent age of continuing medical education (CME) credits completed via the Internet, the credibility of the Inter net for delivering CME courses, the effect the Inter net has had on the delivery of patient care, PDA usage, and referrals of patients to the Internet for medical information. Among the research company’s findings,cardiol ogists, pediatricians, and osteopaths ranked highest among officebased physicians who use the Internet for professional pur poses. The survey reports that general practitioners (GPs), OB/GYNs, and orthopedic surgeons rank lowest in their use of the Internet. Of those officebased physicians referring patients to the Internet for medical information, psychiatrists are the most likely to do so and cardiolo gists are the least likely.Twice as many officebased psychiatrists referred patients to the Web as did office based cardiologists. Surprisingly, physicians report very low activity in acquiring their CME credits over the Web, with 68% of those using the Internet for medically related purposes reporting no CME activity. A new section, examining the use of PDAs, indicates that cardiologists rank highest in PDA usage among the officebased physicians,converse ly, the study reports that general prac titioners and dermatologists rank lowest among this group. PERQ/HCI Report Shows Large Percentage of Physicians Are TURNINGTOTHE INTERNET for Research etrials and DataScout Software FORM STRATEGIC MARKETING AGREEMENT 76% of physicians use the Internet to obtain medically related information, of those 73% use the Internet to access medical library Websites, but 68% of physicians who use the Internet for medically related purposes report no CME activity. This opportunity to partner with etrials reinforces our commitment to provide the clinical research, pharmaceutical, and healthcare markets with innovative, compliant turnkey IVR solutions. Jim Klein, CEO DataScout Software Enhanced Website allows navigators easy access to upcoming conferences, information, and registration materials. 69 PharmaVOICE A p r i l 2 0 02 Emedia In its Medical Internet Hall of Fame issue, MD net guide, a popular magazine and Website for physi cians,has selected its “ Top 100 Websites,”80 of which are healthcare or technology related sites and fall into eight categories:CME providers, general medical, govern ment, medical journals, organizations and associations, patientfriendly, spe cialtyspecific, and technology. The sites were ranked on three criteria — visual presentation, ease of use, and comprehensiveness. (The remaining 20 sites, were identified as being the editors’ personal favorites.) Among the publication’s picks in two categories — CME providers and General Medical Sites — is eMedicine, which scored the highest possible rank ing for comprehensiveness. eMedicine is the elec tronic publisher of the vast eMedicine World Medical Reference covering 62 medical specialties. Close to 10,000 physicians author and edit its original content. “Unlike most other sites that attempt to offer medical information, all of our information under goes an exhaustive fivelevel peer review process by other physicians,”says Scott Plantz,M.D., CEO and emergency physician. “So, our high ranking in the comprehensiveness category is particularly gratifying for us.” eMedicine offers 30,000 hours of continuing medical education (CME) and continuing education (CE) credits, and according to company executives there are plans under way to offer more. Its CME is approved for category 1 credit towards the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award for physicians, the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation for nurses, and the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education for pharmacists, all are delivered through the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Nebraska Pharmacists Association. MDnetguide Selects its TOP 100WEBSITES SciQuest LAUNCHES NEW PRODUCTSDerived from Research Information Portal SciQuest Inc., a software, information, and ser vices company that provides solutions to enhance research operations for pharmaceutical,biotechnol ogy, and other researchbased organizations, has released two newproducts derived from its research information portal SciCentral: a research newsfeed and private portal solutions. Professional news has been shown to be the top driver of customer loyalty to a Website and it is a pri mary factor for users to add a site to their personal bookmarks for repeated use. SciCentral’s profession al news is selected from releases posted on research wires, advanced communications from professional journals, articles from technology portals and research magazines, and press releases from universities and professional organizations. SciQuest’s offerings include two solutions: . The SciCentral Newsfeed, which provides to the customer’s Website a daily supply of qualified breaking research headlines per taining to the biopharmaceutical area.SciQuest’s technology allows for customization to match the look and feel and branding of the host site. . The SciCentral Private Portal, which is a more complete version of the SciCentral Website, with the branding, site navigation, and look and feel of the customer’s site, provides a seamless user experience. ThePrivate Portal includes news from 100 disciplines and resources uniquely screened for scientists. This set of resources is useful for organizations desiring to make their sites a default or destination home page for scientists. Once installed,these information solutions are to be updated daily by the SciCentral team of scientific editors and require no additional maintenance on the part of the customer. “SciCentral has a large and loyal audience due to its news delivery platform and quality of editorial control,” says Geoffrey Kabel, VP of publishing and supplier services for SciQuest.“By repurposing these assets for use by other portals and organizations in a distributed environment, we expect to grow rev enue and provide a very valuable service to scientif ic organizations. We already have several customers in production and the response has exceeded our expectations. We will begin marketing this service immediately to a broader audience.” Since 1997, the SciCentral research portal has been amassing breaking research news for more than 100 R&D disciplines pertaining to all the main realms of science, from biological and health sci ences to chemistry, physics, and engineering. With more than 3 million visitors to date, SciCentral has demonstrated the value of professionally edited online news content to the scientific community. CME PROVIDER SITES: . Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education Accredited Providers — www.accme.org/providers/sec_acp_f1 .asp . Annotated List of Online CME Sites — www.cmelist.com . ArcMesa Educators CME — www.arcmesa.com/cont_ed/profhom e.jhtml?P_ID=9 . Baylor College of Medicine Online CME — www.baylorcme.org/ . CMESearch — www.cmesearch.com/search.asp?type =INTERNET . CMEWeb — www.cmeweb.com . Emedicine.com — www.emedicine.com . HealthStream CME — www.cmecours es.com/Gateway/index.cfm?PID=56 . Medical ComputingToday:List of CME Providers — www.medicalcomputingto day.com/0listcme.html . The Virtual Lecture Hall — www.vlh.com GENERAL MEDICAL SITES: . Doctor’s Guide — www.docguide.com . Emedicine.com — www.emedicine.com . MD Consult — www.mdconsult.com . Medical Conference Information Database — www.medicalconfer ences.com . MedicalView.com — www.medi calview.com . Medscape — www.medscape.com . The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy — www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual . PDR.net For Physicians — http://physi cian.pdr.net/physician . PraxisMD.com — http://praxis.md/praxisgate.asp . WebMD — www.webmd.com GOVERNMENT SITES: . Agency for Health Care Research and Quality — www.ahrq.gov . Centers for Disease Control and Pre vention — www.cdc.gov . Clinical Trials Information — www.clini caltrials.gov . Food and Drug Administration — www.fda.gov . Human Genome Project — www.ornl.gov/hgmis . National Guideline Clearinghouse — www.guideline.gov/index.asp . National Institutes of Health — www.nih.gov . Nutrition.gov — www.nutrition.gov . Office on Women’s Health — www.4woman.gov/owh . U.S. National Library of Medicine — www.nlm.nih.gov MEDICAL JOURNAL SITES: . BioMedCentral —www.biomedcen tral.com . BMJ — www.bmj.com . Chest — www.chestjournal.org . Journal of the American Medical Asso ciation — http://jama.amaassn.org . The Lancet — www.lancet.com/jour nal . New England Journal of Medicine — http://content.nejm.org . Postgraduate Medicine — www.post gradmed.com . PubMed — www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed . Southern Medical Journal — www.sma.org/smj/index.htm . WebMedLit Plus — www.webmedlit.com ORGANIZATION AND ASSOCIATION SITES: . American Academy of Family Physi cians — www.aafp.org . American Cancer Society — www.can cer.org . American Diabetes Association — www.diabetes.org . American Heart Association — www.americanheart.org . American Medical Association — www.amaassn.org . American Psychiatric Association — www.psych.org . American Society of Clinical Oncology —www.asco.org . American Society for Nutritional Sci ence — www.nutrition.org . Internet Healthcare Coalition — www.ihealthcoalition.org . World Health Organization — www.who.int/homepage PATIENTFRIENDLY SITES: . Consumer Drug Information — www.fda.gov/cder/consumerinfo/defa ult.htm . Dr.Koop.com — www.drkoop.com . The Family Doctor — http://familydoc tor.org/ . The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide — www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/index.html . Healthfinder — www.healthfinder.gov . Health Pages — www.thehealth pages.com . Intelihealth — www.intelihealth.com . The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foun dation — www.jf.org . The Patient’s Guide to Health Care on the Internet — www3.telus.net/me/patientsguide . Women’s Health Interactive — www.womenshealth.com SPECIALTYSPECIFIC SITES: . AIDS.org — www.aids.org . CardiologyWeb — www.cardiology web.com . Dailylung.com — www.dailylung.com . GastroAtlas Online — http://gastroat las.com/index.asp . Immunedisease.com — www.immunedisease.com . MDLinx.com — www.mdlinx.com . Neuroguide.com — www.neurogu ide.com . OBGYN.net — www.obgyn.net . OncoLink — http://cancer.med.upenn.edu . Pain.com — www.pain.com TECHNOLOGY SITES: . CNet — www.cnet.com . Internet.com — www.internet.com . List Builder — www.listbuilder.com . Medem.com — www.medem.com . PCWorld.com — www.pcworld.com . PDA Center — www.pdacenter.home stead.com . PDA Street — www.pdastreet.com . Webopedia — www.webopedia.com . Wired News — www.wired.com . ZDNet — www.zdnet.com eMedicine scored the highest possible rank for compre hensiveness SciCentral’s Newsfeed and Private Portal are useful if desiring to make a site adefault or destination home page for scientists MDNETGUIDE’STOPWEBSITES 70 A p r i l 2 0 02 PharmaVOICE Emedia Using three new easytouse Websites from Novartis Ophthalmics, consumers can get help in learning how to treat dry, itchy eyes, discover a safe and convenient way to remove eye makeup, and even learn the best procedure for applying eye drops. In addi tion, consumers can get regular regional allergy alert updates. By going to the sites, con sumers can receive free samples as well as coupons for discounts of Novartis Ophthalmics prod ucts. “ The Internet sites are designed to help educate the general public on the best methods of taking care of eye problems that a majority of Americans will suffer from at one time or another,” says Dave Holland,VP of marketing for Novartis Ophthalmics,North Amer ica. “Consumers can quickly find information on a variety of everyday eye conditions. The pages also provide information and advice on the three Novar tis Ophthalmics products recommended for treat ments.But the key is that no matter what product is used, the sites help educate the public on eye care and vision protection.” Novartis Ophthalmics Hosts Three Sites for Consumers SEARCHING FOR EYECARE ANSWERS CBI,Woburn,Mass., is a worldclass conference company that focuses on producing highlevel programs for executive decision makers who face strategic issues in domestic and international markets.For more information,visit cbinet.com. DATASCOUT SOFTWARE INC.,Raleigh, N.C.,develops and markets innovative, regulatorycompliant interactive voice response software products and services to the clinical research,pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries. For more infor mation,visi datascoutsoftware.com. ETRIALS INC.,Research Triangle Park, N.C., helps its healthcare clients to simplify and accelerate the processes associated with collecting data in clinical trials. For more information,visit etrials.com. MDNETGUIDE, integrates both electronic and print media to provide physicians with userfriendly access to online medical content.MD net guide is the flagship publication of Intellisphere, Plainsboro,N.J.,a division of MultiMedia Healthcare/Freedom LLC. For more informa tion, visit mdnetguide.com. NOVARTIS OPHTHALMICS U.S., Atlanta, is a leader in research,development,and manufacturing of ophthalmic pharmaceuticals that assist in the treatment of glaucoma,agerelated macular degeneration,eye inflammation, ocular allergies, and other diseases and disorders of the eye.For more information, visit novartisophthalmics.com/us. PERQ/HCI,Princeton,N.J., is a leader in pharmaceutical and healthcarerelated promotion research. For more information, visit perqhciresearch.com. SCIQUEST is a software, information,and services company that provides solutions to enhance research operations for pharmaceutical,biotechnology, and other researchbased organizations.For more information,visit sciquest.com. Follow up In addition to educating the consumer on some proper eyecare techniques, Novartis Ophthalmics’ new Web pages describe three of its bestknown brands — Zaditor for itching of the eye due to eye allergies; Eye Scrub makeup remover; and the Gen Teal family of artificial tear products. The newWeb pages are: . www.zaditor.com — An easytoread descrip tion explains what causes eye allergies and how to minimize their effects. Allergy sufferers also learn how Zaditor (ketotifen fumarate ophthalmic solution, 0.025%) helps control itching eyes within minutes for relief that lasts up to 12 hours. Animated graphics show how to determine if those irritated itchy eyes are caused by allergies or an infection . www.eyescrub.com — Offers free samples of Novartis Ophthalmics’ Eye Scrub premoist ened makeup remover pads, a product that has been touted by Glamour magazine editors as “the best eye makeup remover” they have ever tried . www.GenTeal.com — Lets consumers take the guesswork out of managing dry eye. A simple quiz helps them determine which level they have — mild, moderate, or severe. Novar tis Ophthalmics’ family of GenTeal products, available in colorcoded packaging, has been designed for relief of each level of dry eye.The site also offers an online coupon for $3 off the retail price. With worldwide headquarters in Bulach, Switzer land, Novartis Ophthalmics is a global leader in research,development, and manufacturing of lead ing ophthalmic pharmaceuticals that assist in the treatment of glaucoma,agerelated macular degen eration, eye inflammation, ocular allergies, and other diseases and disorders of the eye. Novartis Oph thalmics products are available in more than 110 countries. The North American headquarters is based in Atlanta. “The key is that no matter what product is used, the sites help educate the public on eye care and vision protection; consumers can quickly find information on a variety of everyday eye conditions,” says Dave Holland, VP of marketing for Novartis Ophthalmics, North America. “The key is that no matter what product is used, the sites help educate the public on eye care and vision protection; consumers can quickly find information on a variety of everyday eye conditions,” says Dave Holland, VP of marketing for Novartis Ophthalmics, North America.
