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Diane M. O'Keefe, Editor
Valerie Reid, Web Master
Table of Contents
Portals, Vortals & What's Next on the Web?
What Do You REALLY Do All Day???
MLA Teleconference on E-Journals
"The Public Library and Consumer
Health" Conference
February MDMLG Meeting
Announcements
| Last fall’s eMD Online featured an article about "5
Portals That Shine"
about five physician web portals (PWPs). Physicians can use these portals to
acquire information for their own use or for their patients. This article
occasioned a fair amount of discussion on medlib-l as librarians considered what
these sites provided to physicians and how the sites could be compared with
online library services. MD Consult, Medscape, WebMD, Doctor’s Guide to the
Internet, and Physicians Online share a number of features, often provided for a
fee to the physicians. The writer of the article especially emphasized the daily
news features and the CME capabilities available. These portals include
interactive features which enable personalization of the sites, practice
management, etc. The URL’s are MD Consult http://www.mdconsult.com/about/partners.html
; Medscape http://www.medscape.com/ ;
WebMD http://WebMD.com/ ; Doctor’s Guide http://www.docguide.com.
As I was considering this article to present yet another
response, it occurred to me that I at least didn’t know enough about
"Portals" in general, so I decided to focus on information about
Portals and their successors "Vortals."
Some interesting URL’s which may provide a good introduction
or overview about portals, vortals, etc. will therefore be included in this
article. Portals and Vortals extend beyond search engines and directories,
including an interactive component which personalizes the information for the
person (or company or health care practice) that is using the particular
interface. See further aspects of the definition in the sidebar.
Traffick is the Portal Portal and is located at the following
URL: http://www.traffick.com/
Their site is filled with current news about portals and
Internet trends in general. A regular email update can appear in your mail if
you like.
A useful discussion of the current differences between portals
and "retailers" is to be found in the CYBER Review:
A good example of a library page explaining portals and
providing links is the one available at the Farmington (MI) Community Library: http://www.farmlib.org/portals.html
.
A ComputerWorld article provides an overview of some general
portals, detailing the evolution of search engines and directories into portals
in an attempt to attract more visits.
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Definitions taken from WhatIs.com
http://whatis.techtarget.com/
Portal
Portal is a new term, generally synonymous with
gateway, for a World Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major
starting site for users when they get connected to the Web or that users
tend to visit as an anchor site. There are general portals and
specialized or niche portals. Some major general portals include Yahoo,
Excite, Netscape, Lycos, CNET, Microsoft Network, and America Online's
AOL.com. Examples of niche portals include Garden.com (for gardeners),
Fool.com (for investors), and SearchNT.com (for Windows NT
administrators).
A number of large access providers offer portals to
the Web for their own users. Most portals have adopted the Yahoo
style of content categories with a text-intensive, faster loading page
that visitors will find easy to use and to return to. Companies with
portal sites have attracted much stock market investor interest because
portals are viewed as able to command large audiences and numbers of
advertising viewers.
Typical services offered by portal sites include a
directory of Web sites, a facility to search for other sites, news,
weather information, e-mail, stock quotes, phone and map information,
and sometimes a community forum. Excite is among the first portals to
offer users the ability to create a site that is personalized for
individual interests.
Vortal
On the Web, a vortal (vertical industry portal) is a
Web site that provides a gateway or portal to information related to a
particular industry, such as health care, insurance, automobiles, or
food manufacturing. (A vertical industry is one that is focused on a
relatively narrow range of goods and services, whereas a horizontal
industry is one that aims to produce a wide range of goods and
services. Because most industry tends to specialize, most industry
tends to be vertical.) A term that might also be used is interest
community Web site since any vertical industry brings together people
sharing an interest in buying, selling, or exchanging information about
that particular industry. Vortals are also seen as likely
business-to-business communities - for example, small business people
with home offices might be attracted to a comprehensive vortal that
provided ideas and product information related to setting up and
maintaining the home office.
By whatever name, Web sites that promise to give the
user a single place to communicate with and about a single industry are
predicted to becomes big businesses themselves. The Gartner Group
estimates that 300 such sites already exist and predicts as many as
10,000 within the next several years. An early leader is publicly-traded
VerticalNet, a company that uses the same content format and design for
a number of vortal sites. |
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Many of these general portals intend to
provide users a "one stop shopping" site to serve as the home page
where they can be updated on the news, check their email and other topics of
personal interest.
Simon Vandore in the Australian Newswire article "Portal,
Vortal, Sportal" says that "a true portal is likely to have a range of
services like free email, powerful search engines, news media, chat rooms,
financial services and alliances with other major Web sites" as the focuses
on the interactivity of portals.
This article concludes with some clever puns as Vandore
answers the following question:
"Will we see other 'ortals'?
Portals, vortals and sportals may be the work of mortals, but
the IT world does have a habit of bending the English language and leaving its
mark on the dictionary.
Maybe a heart disease information site could be an aortal?
Facts for small people could be found at a shortal. A law information centre
could be a tortal. A centre for Northern Territory criminal law could be a
borstal. Did we say that? Chortle."
Another good article is "The Vortals are Coming! The
Vortals are Coming!" available at http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/00/04-vortals.html
.
The article suggests that "Vertical portals (vortals) can
serve [healthcare] providers when large portals have fallen short: furnishing
deep, topic-specific information, tools and business-to-business (B2B)
connectivity for the specialty practice. The creative question is how to build
one and keep it in business. Because vortals cater to niche audiences and
require drill-down information as unique as their users, there is no
cookie-cutter model." It then goes on to mention several specific vortals
such as GASNet for anesthesiologists, Aunt Minnie for radiology. Oakland,
Calif.-based Lumedx CEO Allyn McAuley focuses on the necessity for a vortal to
"connect the clinician, the staff member, the patient, and ultimately the
manufacturers of devices and drugs that sell into this environment around a
portal sharing information that they deal with every day."
A helpful interview considering business uses of vortals can
be found in the e-Business Application Integration Journal. A further discussion of the usefulness of vortals
http://www.business2.com/content/magazine/marketing/2000/09/15/18551
A vortal tutorial at http://stylusinc.com/portal/tutorial/introduction.htm
may be of help to those of us who are involved in helping our hospitals/health
systems set up a vortal including physicians, patients, vendors, etc. Henry Ford
Health System has initiated the beginnings of such a vortal at http://www.henryford.com/
where patients make appointments, find doctors, etc.
Of course I must mention at least a couple of consumer health
portals for your consideration. OnHealth has Wellness Manager for consumers to personalize. A number of health
insurance plans are also setting up personal pages for their members to acquire
information and keep track of their own healthcare.
As I conclude this article I realize that its primary function
is as a webliography rather than a thorough evaluation and I will expect
that some MDMLG members will have more to say on this topic as our institutions
start using vortals as part of their normal routine.
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Maureen LeLacheur
Henry Ford Hospital
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We are Circuit Riders:
At the Mercy Center for Health Services in Watertown, N.Y., two librarians
dispense medical information and current medical research to rural clinics and
hospital staff as part of an Outreach Project funded by the National Library of
Medicine. The area they cover is within 100 miles of Watertown.
Library service is offered to the smallest hospitals and clinics, to long
term care facilities, to hospices, to nursing homes, and to physical therapy
consulting firms. They visit these areas on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis
depending on the size of the facility, providing library services for a fraction
of the cost of maintaining and operating their own libraries.
Grateful Med, July/August, 1994
Texas Update: MIST (medical information for south Texas) a grant from NLM to
the Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, TX, was used to save lives
shortly after its installation. TX has a Circuit Librarian Health Information
Network (CLHIN) and one of the librarians got a call from the emergency room
that a group of very sick illegal aliens were found in a railroad box car. The
ER physicians believed they were exposed to toxic substances that were
previously carried in that car.
They sent the list to Graciela Reyna, a librarian, who was then able to
access MEDLINE and identify the toxic materials all within 30 minutes. Then they
were able to start appropriate treatment to save their lives.
Grateful Med, Nov/Dec. 1998
A compassionate oncologist?
A clinic in Sherman Oaks, CA. has a retired priest who is also a retired
librarian on their team of oncologists. He tries to approach each case from the
patients view- always looking for information- patient reassurance - and for
hope.
He searches MEDLINE, PDQ and CANCERLIT. But where does he go for hope. It is
not even a MESH term. The concept is to get data on the most current modalities.
He looks not just for treatment, he wants the something that may change the
course of a disease or extend survival. He looks for data about clinical trials
and a chance to include these patients in the trials particularly when a
promising new medication is not yet available.
He gives the info that he finds to the doctor and to the patient as a partner
in treatment.
Grateful Med, June/July 1995
Lawyering, as in Gresham
In Tacoma,WA, a woman who had one healthy child was diagnosed as having
epilepsy was pregnant with her second. Her Doctor put her on Dilatin to control
her seizures. Her husband, Leonard Harbeson, was a career Air Force sergeant and
was stationed at McChord Air Force base in Washington.
The couple specifically asked her doctor there about the possible effects on
her unborn child. She was told Dilantin could only cause cleft palate. The baby
was born with Fetal Hydantoin Syndrome. They sued Parke Davis and the jury ruled
in favor of Parke Davis. The attorney for the plaintiff researched the
literature and found if " at any time a physician discloses a reasonably
forseeable risk and the patient inquires concerning any or all risks, then
complete disclosure on the part of the physician is required."
Researching the literature is required. The attorney did so and the court
reversed the decision. The attorney was also a librarian. Her search turned up a
file drawer full of material. It behooves attending physicians to research the
literature in order to update and document their medical knowledge.
Grateful Med, Mar/April 1992
A Managed Care librarian?
Julie Carr a former transplant nurse, now works in the Medical policy
department of Blue cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Her job is to gather the
research needed to evaluate new techniques and devices and then makes
recommendations to the Medical Policy Committee. She has had to become a
librarian by default. She uses Grateful Med and has it installed right her desk
computer.
The Medical Policy Committee formulates policies that decide if a particular
treatment is effective. Julie finds is able to locate and order articles to back
up her recommendations without having to leave her desk at work.
Grateful Med, July/Aug 1996
Gay Byrnes
Providence Hospital
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TOP
The University of Detroit Mercy hosted and MDMLG sponsored the November 15th
MLA satellite teleconference entitled "The Effects of E-Journals on Your
Library." Forty-five people attended, representing public and academic as
well as hospital libraries. There were attendees from Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand
Rapids and Jackson as well as local communities.
The stated goal of the program was to "enhance the knowledge of
electronic publishing and to explore the issues, perceptions, experiences,
benefits, potential pitfalls, and challenges facing librarians as they confront
these revolutionary changes in knowledge- based information delivery."
Part 1 of the program presented background information – the myths,
options, pricing structure, publishers’ view, and prevalence of E-journals.
One interesting statistic that was presented: 44% of titles from the
Brandon/Hill list have no online coverage. The conclusion to the question
"can we cancel our print titles?" is thus a resounding not yet.
Part 2 looked at case studies from three institutions. The issues of
cancellation versus duplication, access, archiving, budgeting and changes in
policies and practice were discussed.
Part 3 looked toward future developments. Panelists anticipate easier
licensing, more "pick and choose" options and less distinction between
books and journals.
MDMLG has purchased a copy of the videotape of this presentation to make it
available for members to borrow.
Sue Skoglund
Riverside Hospital
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Lynda Baker recently attended "The Public Library and
Consumer Health" conference in Washington DC, sponsored by Public Library
Association, MLA and NLM. The conference was well attended by both public and
health sciences librarians. The two-day conference featured Tom Ferguson, whose
keynote address concerned the empowered medical consumer.
Dr. D. Lindberg also spoke about some of the things NLM is
doing in consumer health. Four CE courses were offered, including: Planning and
managing the consumer health library with Michele Spatz; Consumer health
information on the Internet with Cecilia Durkin; Fundraising and grantwriting
strategies with Ruth Holst; and Finding and understanding evidence-based literature with Ann
McKibbon. Carla Funk talked about MLA’s
Consumer Health Librarian Credentialing program. Another general session focused
on what various librarians were doing for consumers seeking health information.
The courses were good, the hotel was terrific, and the weather was great. There
was not much time to visit the museums, unfortunately. For $15.00 extra,
participants could go on a tour of NLM. All in all, it was good conference and a
good opportunity to meet some interesting people in the public library sector
who are involved in consumer health.
Lynda Baker
Wayne State University
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The February 15 meeting of the MDMLG will be held at the
Karmanos Cancer Institute on Warren and John R. The Speakers will be Terry Arndt
and Deborah Lauseng from the University of Michigan.
They will address the topic of Government Information
Resources on the Internet. Registration is at 12:30 with the meeting beginning
at 1:00 p.m. Don’t miss it.
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Henry Ford Hospital, Sladen Medical Library has a new
reference Librarian who started on January 8. Her name is Elizabeth Siporin.
The first issue of Journal of Hospital Librarianship has been
published. The results of the MDMLG research project were published in the first
issue.
There is an opening for an Information
Services Librarian at Providence Hospital. Contact Carole Gilbert at
248-424-3294.
MDMLG members Sandra Studebaker and Jill VanBuskirk are
forming a team for this year’s Detroit Race for the Cure on Saturday, April
21. This annual 3-mile run/walk and 1-mile walk benefits the Susan G. Komen
Breast Cancer Foundation and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Detroit.
Previously held at the Detroit Zoo, the 10th Anniversary event will
be staged at Comerica Park. Details to be presented at the February meeting.
MDMLG member Deborah Sobczak has published two articles:
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"Clinical Practice Guidelines Resources on the
Web." Medical Reference Services Quarterly, v.19, no. 2, Summer
200: 73-79.
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"A Guide to Web Resources for Caregivers."
Health Care on the Internet, v.4, no. 2/3, 2000: 113-20.
Deborah is currently working as a part-time reference librarian
at Garden City Public Library and is expecting her first baby in March.
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