Elsevier Enhances MD Consult, Providing Physici...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, May 2 /PRNewswire/ --

    - 'Clinically Clever' Search Improves Query Interpretation and Generates
Results Organized by how Physicians Diagnose and Treat Patients; Free MD 
Consult Access During May 2007



    Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical
information products and services, has enhanced MD Consult, its online
clinical reference tool, to accelerate access to information and educational
content for better diagnosis and treatment. Search results for the most
common queries are tailored to each stage of the diagnostic and clinical
workup, starting with assessing a patient's signs and symptoms, then moving
on to diagnosis, treatment, potential complications, and prognosis.



    "Clinicians want fast, concise answers at the point of care, and they
want to have access to the most important information about a medical
condition from high-quality trusted resources," says Dr. Jonathan Teich, an
attending physician in emergency medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's
Hospital and Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Elsevier. "The new user
interface and smarter search tools enable healthcare professionals to quickly
access information in formats they can put to immediate use."



    To encourage use of the new enhanced MD Consult, Elsevier is offering
free access to MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com) throughout May 2007. During
this time users can test the site without a paid subscription.



Enhancements

    MD Consult revamped its search capabilities and user interface through an
extensive process involving input from physicians, medical students,
librarians, and other health care professionals around the world. Customers
participated in individual interviews, usability tests, focus groups,
surveys, collaborative design sessions, and live, observational tests of
sample searches.



Innovations in the new version of MD Consult include:

    - Recommended results for top searches: Recommended results
pages for the most popular search queries within MD Consult are organized
according to how physicians diagnose and treat patients.



    - Additional search recommendations: MD Consult proactively guides
clinicians to add details or refinements to more general searches. For
instance, typing in a term such as "hepatitis" would return information
links immediately, and also would generate recommendations for more
specific terms such as "hepatitis A" or "hepatitis C."



    - Best resource suggestions: MD Consult includes an extensive
collection of world leading clinical reference texts and journals. When
clinicians are searching for a specific book, author or journal, MD
Consult provides a direct link to access the desired resource.



    - Easier, faster drug search: Whether clinicians type in the brand
name of a drug or its generic equivalent, MD Consult generates a link to
the correct information, including drug indications, contraindications,
adverse reactions, FDA approvals, and safety notices.



    MD Consult is an integral component of how Elsevier is continually
working to improve outcomes in health and in the business of health. Using
it, clinicians can seek current, evidence-based and experience-based answers
to specific clinical questions, obtain general overviews on medical topics,
make patient management decisions and find drug information. The program also
includes topical medical news and provides patient educational materials.



    "MD Consult combines the best medical content with the best clinical
reference tools to help doctors help patients," says Brian Nairn, CEO of
Elsevier's Health Sciences Division. "Elsevier has a tradition of providing
quality, reliable information for clinicians in academic, patient care and
research settings, and now our customers will have faster access to critical
clinical information."



    MD Consult now serves over 280,000 users and is licensed by more than
1,700 health care organizations worldwide, including nearly 95% of US medical
schools. Subscribers search extensive Elsevier content 1.5 million times per
month and view more than 8 million pages of clinical content, primarily
during daytime practice hours.



About Elsevier

    Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and
Medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the
Global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70
Offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per
year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such
as ScienceDirect, MD Consult, Scopus, bibliographic databases, and online
reference works.



    Elsevier is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a
world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science
and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier
provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with
increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's
ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK
and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).