Association for
Veterinary Informatics
NEWSLETTER

May - June, 1997



Harmon Rogers (Lake Stevens, WA) - President; - President-Elect; James T. Case (UC-Davis) - Secretary Treasurer; Ronald D. Smith (Illinois) - Newsletter Editor

IN THIS ISSUE

  • ASSOCIATION NEWS
  • AVMA/AVI Talbot Informatics Symposium
  • AVI Communications Working Meeting
  • AVI CAI Interest Group Meeting
  • How to Contact AVI
  • CONSULTANT AS A WEB "HUB" AND TEACHING TOOL
  • PRODUCT AVAILABILITY/REVIEWS/COMPARISONS
  • Free - TopClass Lite Educational Web Server Software
  • Software for Teaching Over the Net
  • INTERNET RESOURCES
  • SCIENCE-NEWS - A Weekly Digest of Science News
  • OJVR - Online Journal of Veterinary Research URL Change
  • Discussion Added to "Cattlemen on the Hill" Web Site
  • DOGTALES(tm) is now TALK-ABOUTDOGS
  • 7000 Pathology Images
  • WWW: Hardin Meta Directory update - Medical Informatics
  • U.S. Government Debuts Stats Web Site
  • NEWS AND COMMENTARY
  • Bacteria on a Chip
  • USDA Accepts Digital Signatures
  • New Graduate Requirement Calls for Web Page Creation
  • Stanford's Highwire Press is High Flier in Online Pubs
  • Computer Access for Minority Students
  • Society for the Internet in Medicine
  • MEETINGS AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
  • Stanford Medical Informatics Short Course
  • Make the Link Workshop (World Wide Web for Everyone)
  • 6th International Conference on Health and Medical Informatics Education
  • 15th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence; Nagoya, Japan
  • GEOMED '97; Rostock, Germany
  • Veterinary Informatics at the 5th World Equine Veterinary Association; Padova, Italy
  • NAWEB97: Web Course Developers Conference; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
  • SUGGESTED READING
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online
  • Digital Medicine
  • CLOSING BITS
  • Home PCs Rank First in Doing Nothing
  • Technologies Americans Love To Hate
  • Medical Semantics

  • ASSOCIATION NEWS


    AVMA/AVI Talbot Informatics Symposium
    From: Chuck Cohen <
    CACohen@compuserve.com>

    I hope all enjoy the activities and hope that each and every one of us can bring a few friends along to make it a grand day. On Tuesday July 22nd the AVI will have it's working group gatherings and luncheon. We cordially invite any interested parties to attend and would welcome membership by all.

    Amercian Veterinary Medical Association with the Association for Veterinary Informatics
    Monday July 21, 1997 -- Reno, Nevada

    B-13 Reno Convention Center

    Presiding: Dr. Charles A. Cohen

    8:30 -- Welcome: Dr. Harmon A. Rogers
    President of AVI, AVMA District XI Board member, & AAHA Medical Records Chair

    8:40 -- Introduction: Dr. Charles A. Cohen
    Chairperson AVI Education Committee & Director of IS, New Haven Central Hospital for Veterinary Medicine, Inc.

    8:50 -- Information Interchange and the Patient Oriented Medical Record
    Dr. Roger K. Johnson, Encina, CA (practitioner) & Ken Oman (Idexx Laboratories, formerly AVS, Inc.)

    10:00 -- Break

    10:15 -- Corporate Veterinary Software: The Overlooked Player
    Dr. Hugh B. Lewis (MMI and VetSmart; formerly dean, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue U.)

    10:50 -- Camoflage Computers - Global Automation in the Veterinary Service
    Dr. Gary Stamp (Col, USA & founding member of the Veterinary Emergency Critical Care Society) with Drs. Stephanie J. Sherman and Jarret N. Schmit.

    11:30 -- Panel of Speakers

    11:45 -- Lunch Break

    1:00 -- The Algorithms of Veterinary Medicine
    Dr. Stephen J. Ettinger (Co-author with Dr. Ed Feldman) of the textbooks of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 4th edition. The 200 or so VISIO designed algorithms represent decison-based thinking as it evolves in our profession.

    2:00 -- Electronic Publishing: Significant Benefits for Practitioners
    Dr. Francis X. Buckingham (Veterinary Software Publishing)

    2:30 -- Break

    2:45 -- Practical & Flexible Electronic Medical Records Using Templates & Voice Recognition
    Dr. Michael F. Philbrick (Animal Intelligence Software Co.)

    3:30 -- Internet and World Wide Web Resources
    Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilcke (Director of Informatics, Virginia Polytechnical U., VA-MD College of Veterinary Medicine and participant in the AVMA's SNOMED efforts)

    4:00 -- The AVMA's Online Services Grow up: Where We've Been, Where We're Going, and How We're Going to Get There
    Karl Wise (Director, AVMA Center for Information Management) & the AVMA Online Service Staff

    4:30 -- Panel Discussion & Closing Comments

    This Symposium is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Richard B. Talbot - forerunner for veterinary computing.

    AVI Communications Working Meeting
    From: "Ken Boschert, DVM" <
    KEN@WUDCM.WUSTL.EDU>

    If any of you are interested in participating in the Communications Working Group of the AVI, get in touch with me directly.

    AVI CAI Interest Group Meeting

    The CAI special interest group of the Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI) will be meeting at the AVMA meeting

    Tuesday, July 22, 1997
    8 am to noon
    Sands Regency Hotel

    The purpose of this meeting is to discuss issues related to technologically enhanced education in the DVM curriculum as well as in continuing education programs. Topics will be determined by the participants and may include:

    **demonstrations of programs in use in the DVM curriculum or for CE discussion of tools used in program development how to get faculty involved in developing/using computer enhanced programs in the curriculum

    **assessment of the needs of the practicing Veterinarian with regard to computer-delivered CE
    other topics as determined by the participants

    Last year I put together a web page for this group at:

    http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/avicai/avicai.html

    Please let me know if you have a program to demonstrate, an instructional program to list at this site or have information about your self you want to share with the group.

    Cheryl Dhein

    Cheryl R Dhein DVM MS (
    CRD@vetmed.wsu.edu) College of Veterinary Medicine
    Washington State University
    Pullman, Wa 99164-6610
    Telephone: 509-335-0711

    How to Contact AVI

    Applications for membership, accompanied by a check for $35 payable to the AVI, should be sent to:

    Dr. James T. Case; Secretary Treasurer, AVI; 1590 Augusta Ct., Dixon, CA 95620
    Phone: 916/752-4408; FAX: 916/752-5680; e-mail:
    JimCase@aol.com

    Dr. Case is responsible for distribution of the hardcopy version of the AVI Newsletter.

    Newsletter items can be sent to:

    Dr. Ronald D. Smith, Newsletter Editor, AVI; UI College of Veterinary Medicine; 2001 South Lincoln; Urbana, IL 61801.
    Phone: 217/333-2449; FAX: 217/333-4628; e-mail:
    rd-smith@uiuc.edu

    If you are an AVI member and would like to be on the AVI Newsletter electronic distribution list, send an e-mail message to the Newsletter Editor. Although the electronic version is only an ASCII (text) file, it's faster, searchable, easier to store and retrieve, and environmentally friendly.

    Current and past issues of the AVI Newsletter are also available on the Web at the following URL:

    http://netvet.wustl.edu/avi.htm.

    CONSULTANT AS A WEB "HUB" AND TEACHING TOOL

    Dr. Maurice E. White

    College of Veterinary Medicine
    Cornell University
    <
    mew6@cornell.edu>


    Editor's note: The Web version of Dr. Pete White's CONSULTANT computer assisted diagnosis program recently became available and is freely accessible at...

    http://www.vet.cornell.edu/consultant/consult.asp

    I asked Dr. White to provide a few comments about the direction he sees CONSULTANT going, and he kindly responded with the following thoughts.

    ---------------------

    Thanks for the nice comments on CONSULTANT. Writing about it seems so tame compared to using it online, but I do have a couple of messages that it might be useful to get out.

    CONSULTANT is a diagnostic database with information on almost 7,000 diseases of birds, cattle, dogs, horses, cats, goats, sheep, and pigs. The numbers of diseases per species ranges from almost 1400 for the dog to just under 300 for birds. I am responsible for the content, and Mr. John Lewkowicz of Cornell's computing center handles the computer side of things. It had been used world-wide in a MUMPS version, but has now really taken off on the Web. At the time this is being written we expect about 400,000 hits over the course of the year. While it continues to be used by veterinarians, it is also used extensively by animal owners. Readers of this message can go to <
    http://www.vet.cornell.edu/consultant/consult.asp> to examine CONSULTANT for themselves, and there is no need to describe it further here.

    I believe the rise of CONSULTANT and similar systems will have wide-ranging implications for the management of veterinary information. One possiblility is that CONSULTANT could be the central index used to send veterinarians and students to excellent disease-oriented Web sites, making CONSULTANT the hub of a huge virtual textbook of expert knowledge from around the world. This is happening now, as I have been citing Web sites as references. There are hundreds of such citations in CONSULTANT; excellent examples include Dr. Collins' site on Johne's at <
    http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/johnes/> and Dr. Strain's site on deafness in dogs and cats at <http://www.lsu.edu/guests/senate/public_html/deaf.htm>. If clinicians and scientists from around the world would build similar sites for just a few of the diseases in which they each have expertise and bring them to my attention to be linked, CONSULTANT will be the index to an unprecedented world-wide virtual textbook of veterinary medicine and differential diagnosis. This will be the model for textbooks of the 21st century, and veterinary medicine can take the lead in this area. I would urge that there be a world-wide effort by individuals to create website disease-based 'chapters' for this virtual texbook. One concern of those who might put the effort into building such sites has been that they will be little used, they will be lost in the immensity of the Web. If you build a site about a disease, inform me at <mew6@cornell.edu>, and if it is of high quality CONSULTANT will send some of our thousands of users to you. If you build it they will come. Perhaps you already have such a site that I have not linked; if so please let me know.

    Another development of interest is that CONSULTANT could the basis of e-mail and Web teaching that could easily be sent nationwide with the right mailing lists. Material at <
    http://web.vet.cornell.edu/public/education/white/> was sent to all Cornell students over the course of a year, and about 3 dozen students used these messages as the basis of an experiental 1-credit course, with a final that was 'open book' and 'open web'. This was a first effort, which might be evident in the content at the URL, but there is nothing to prevent versions of such material from being sent to the world from any site. With links to the Web indexed through CONSULTANT it would be amazing; students would have masses of knowledge at their fingertips and would be learning from the Web and from experts around the world in the way that will be routine for their careers in the next century.

    One concern I have heard since CONSULTANT began in the early 1980s is that this will put information into the hands of non-veterinarians that could lead to some harm. There is no doubt that they are getting the information; through CONSULTANT I get about 1/2 dozen e-mails a day from as far away as Pakistan asking for advice. Of course diagnosis by e-mail is ridiculous, but I will sometimes send such individuals differential diagnoses for a problem to impress on them the complexity of veterinary medicine and to urge them to see a qualified veterinarian. Surely someone who receives a list of 211 possible causes of seizures in dogs will recognize the need for expert diagnosis and treatment of such a difficult problem.

    I will close these notes by repeating the request I made above. Please build excellent Web sites in your area of clinical expertise, index them by bringing them to my attention for linkage through CONSULTANT, and join in the revolution in information management for the 21st century.

    Maurice E. White DVM
    Professor and Chair
    Department of Clinical Sciences
    Cornell Veterinary Medicine

    PRODUCT AVAILABILITY/REVIEWS/COMPARISONS


    Free - TopClass Lite Educational Web Server Software
    From: WBT Systems Newsletter - May 1997
    Newsletter Editor <
    editor@wbtsystems.com>

    TopClass Lite, our award winning server software for managing and delivering education and training via the web, is available to individual users for FREE.

    What do you get with TopClass Lite?

    * A fully functional version of our software which never expires.
    * The ability to create unlimited courses.
    * The ability to register unlimited students

    You can download TopClass Lite from our web site:
    http://www.wbtsystems.com

    Editor@wbtsystems.com


    Software for Teaching Over the Net
    From: Edupage Editors <
    educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu>

    A computer scientist at British Columbia has designed a set of software tools called WebCT (for Web Course Tools) that allows instructors to design online courses, create their own Web sites, hold interactive and bulletin-board-type discussions, and administer exams, all on the Internet. Professors simply enter their own material into pre-prepared forms, and the virtual classroom takes shape. WebCT is already being used in more than 70 courses at the University of British Columbia, and the program is available for testing to faculty members outside the university. Once testing is completed, the program's authors plan to charge a fee for its use. (Chronicle of Higher Education 24 Jan 97 A23) <
    http://homebrew.cs.ubc.ca/webct/>

    INTERNET RESOURCES


    SCIENCE-NEWS - A Weekly Digest of Science News
    From: Prism Express <
    prismx@earthlink.net>

    The mailing list SCIENCE-NEWS is a free weekly Email digest of science news of significance to journalists, educators, the financial community, and a general multi-national university educated audience. The weekly issues of SCIENCE-NEWS are prepared by the staff of Prism Express.

    To subscribe, send the following command in the BODY of mail to prismx@earthlink.net

    SUB SCIENCE-NEWS

    Owner: Claire Haller
    prismx@earthlink.net
    Prism Express

    OJVR - Online Journal of Veterinary Research URL Change
    From:
    jvet@mailbox.uq.edu.au

    This is just to advise that our URL has changed from:

    http://www.powerup.com.au/~jvet/jvet196a.htm

    to: http://www.uq.edu.au/~zzjvet/jvet196a.htm

    or http://www.cpb.uokhsc.edu/OJVR/jvet196a.htm

    We encourage submissions on Veterinary Informatics including hard code for diagnostics if anyone is interested!

    Discussion Added to "Cattlemen on the Hill" Web Site
    From:
    sh@ncanet.org

    Check-out the latest addition to the "Cattlemen on the Hill" web site, "Herd on the Ranch"--an interactive, on-line discussion group for the agriculture industry to discuss politics and policy issues.

    http://www.beef.org/hill

    The National Cattlemen's Beef Association
    1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 300
    Washington DC 20004-1701
    (p)202-347-0228; (f)202-667-0237

    "Cattlemen on the Hill" --
    http://www.beef.org/hill
    "CowTown America" --
    http://www.cowtown.org
    "Cattlemen on the Web" --
    http://www.beef.org

    DOGTALES(tm) is Now TALK-ABOUTDOGS
    From: Albert Buys <
    abuys@jersey.net>

    Due to a trade mark the DOGTALES(tm) list has been changed to TALK-ABOUTDOGS The TALK-ABOUTDOGS mailing list is for discussions and telling stories about "my companion dog", stories about war dogs, working dogs, adopted/foster/orphan dogs. A place to tell unusual stories about lost or found dogs and a place where one can look for their lost/found dog when a natural calamity strikes. Also a list where animal rescue centers can tell their stories about their needs or request for help. Especially welcome are stories and poems when your dog life's end and you need a place to share your feelings.

    To subscribe, send the following command to:

    subscribe talk-aboutdogs firstname lastname

    For example: subscribe talk-aboutdogs John Doe

    in the BODY of your e-mail to
    listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu .

    Owner: Albert Buys
    abuys@voicenet.com

    7000 Pathology Images
    From: Jules Berman <
    jjberman@EROLS.COM>
    Organization: Pathology Informatics, Inc. Subject

    We have just added links to about 7,000 pathology images on our web site:

    http://www.pathinfo.com/

    This is also the site of the Lightning Hypertext of Disease search engine.

    Jules Berman, Pres., Pathology Informatics, Inc.

    WWW: Hardin Meta Directory update - Medical Informatics
    From: Eric Rumsey <
    eric-rumsey@UIOWA.EDU>

    This is to announce an updated version of the Hardin Meta Directory web page for Medical Informatics. All links have been checked to confirm connection and new links have been added, including the following:

    -Healthcare Information Systems Directory, Robert Dean

    A *new and important feature* for Hardin MD is that we are now using a link checker to check the connection rate for the lists that are included. Generally the lists with better connection rates are toward the top of their size category. Lists on the updated Hardin MD Medical Informatics page with especially good connection rates include:

    -MedWeb: Informatics
    -Healthcare Information Systems Directory, Robert Dean
    -Veterinary Informatics Home Page, Ken Boschert, Washington Univ
    -Duke University - Healthcare Informatics Standards | HL7 Standards page
    -Univ Washington - Informatics - IAIMS and Informatics Sites | HL7 on the Internet

    Of course, using our link checker, the links on our own pages have superlative connection rates, generally above 98%.

    The URL for the Hardin Meta Directory Medical Informatics page is

    http://www.arcade.uiowa.edu/hardin-www/md-inform.html

    Please check it out !

    If you would like to receive e-mail notices for all Hardin MD updates (1-2 messages per wk), please notify me.

    Eric Rumsey <
    eric-rumsey@uiowa.edu>
    Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
    University of Iowa
    Iowa City IA 52242
    319-335-9875 (voice), 319-335-9897 (fax)
    Hardin Meta Directory of Internet Health Sources
    http://www.arcade.uiowa.edu/hardin-www/md.html
    Reviewed in Consumer Reports, Feb 1997, p 29

    U.S. Government Debuts Stats Web Site
    Forwarded by: "Ken Boschert, DVM" <
    KEN@WUDCM.WUSTL.EDU>

    If you need information about the U.S. government, you now can get it from a Web site launched last week by a well-connected source: the White House. The FedStats site (
    http://www.fedstats.gov) enables visitors to make keyword searches of statistics from 70 agencies, including the Census Bureau.

    Sally Katzen, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs department of the Office of Management and Budget, said the site has no information on individuals. She was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that, with FedStats, "Today, a high-school student with a modem in Boise, Idaho, has better access to federal statistics than federal officials in Washington had five years ago."

    NEWS AND COMMENTARY


    Bacteria on a Chip
    From: Edupage Editors <
    educom@educom.unc.edu>

    Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using live bacteria, fixed onto silicon chips, to test for traces of pollution that could linger following a toxic waste clean-up effort. The engineers used a common microorganism that had been genetically altered to emit a bluish glow in the presence of naphthalene -- a component in jet fuels. The microbes are placed in a porous polymer matrix on the surface of the chip, and when they start to glow, the chip sounds an alarm. The scientists hope that eventually these critters-on-a-chip could be deployed by the dozens at any polluted site. Using a variety of microbes to detect different chemicals, the chips could send back wireless progress reports for a fraction of the cost of the optical fiber sensors and bulky electronic equipment used today.
    (Business Week 12 May 97)

    USDA Accepts Digital Signatures
    From: Questa Glenn <
    qglenn@aphis.usda.gov>

    WASHINGTON, May 12, 1997--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is accepting electronic digital signatures from accredited veterinarians as an additional option for official certificates, forms, records, and reports.

    "The availability of digital signatures benefits accredited veterinarians and the industries they serve by saving time and money," said Joan M. Arnoldi, deputy administrator of veterinary services with APHIS, a part of USDA's marketing and regulatory programs mission area.

    Accredited veterinarians are approved by APHIS to perform certain regulatory tasks to control and prevent the spread of animal diseases in the United States and internationally. These tasks include preparing and submitting official documents to APHIS. Until now, APHIS required a handwritten signature.

    Notice of this action was published in the May 9 Federal Register and was effective upon publication.

    NOTE: USDA news releases, program announcements, and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the APHIS Home Page by pointing your Web browser to

    http://www.aphis.usda.gov

    and clicking on "APHIS Press Releases." Also, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up to receive APHIS press releases automatically. Send an e-mail message to

    majordomo@info.aphis.usda.gov

    and leave the subject blank. In the message, type subscribe press_releases

    New Graduate Requirement Calls for Web Page Creation

    Starting with the year 2000, students at Kalamazoo College will be required to create a portfolio of Web pages documenting their academic and extracurricular activities. Called a "K Portfolio," the exercise is meant to improve the academic advising process, by dividing activities into five categories: lifelong learning, career readiness, social responsibility, intercultural understanding and leadership. "We're changing the entire face of advising, basically," says one of the project's coordinators. "The Web organizes things by theme or topic. It encourages you to see how many little physical blue links you can make between different things." (Chronicle of Higher Education 23 May 97)

    Stanford's Highwire Press is High Flier in Online Pubs
    From: Edupage Editors <
    educom@educom.unc.edu>

    Stanford University's HighWire Press, based at the University's Cecil H. Green Library, is breaking new ground in electronic publishing, focusing on scientific journals by scholarly societies. HighWire's staff works with journal editors to design their online versions, and inserts hyperlinks to related material on the Web. Associations pay HighWire between $35,000 and $125,000 for online journal development, plus several thousand dollars per month in maintenance costs. Since signing on as HighWire's first customer, the Journal of Biological Chemistry has experienced a 15% increase in article submissions: "One hypothesis is that because JBC has got this global distribution, because the hyperlinking has been so terrific, because the hypernavigation is so good, because you can blow up these images and get really good pictures of gels that are really workable in a lab, more authors are sending stuff the JBC," says HighWire's publisher. A secondary benefit from the project is the fact that the online journals now are available to new markets, such as Russia and India, where paper versions are difficult to access. Other universities, including Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley, are involved in online journal projects, but Ann Okerson, an associate university librarian at Yale University, says the HighWire project is unique because of its close association with a university library and its efforts to work with a number of publishers. (Chronicle of Higher Education 16 May 97)

    Computer Access for Minority Students
    From: Edupage Editors <
    educom@educom.unc.edu>

    A report by the Educational Testing Service suggests that "there are persistent patterns of inequity in student access to technology. The kids with the most needs are getting the least access." Nationally, schools average one computer for approximately every 10 students, but where minority enrollment exceeds 90% the rate is approximately 1 to 17. (Washington Post 15 May 97)

    Society for the Internet in Medicine
    From: Clive Baldock <
    c.baldock@QUT.EDU.AU>

    Public membership of the Society for the Internet in Medicine is now available. Members are eligible for a range of benefits, including reduced registration fees for Society events including MEDNET 97 - The World Congress of the Internet in Medicine, and a reduction in the subscription to the journal "Medical Informatics". Full details may be found at the web site, http://www.mednet.org.uk/mednet.

    The provisional Scientific Programme for MEDNET 97 has been placed on the MEDNET 97 site and early registration is now available.

    If you wish to receive further information regarding MEDNET 97 and the Society for the Internet in Medicine, please subscribe to the Society listserver, if you have not already done so. You may to this by sending an e-mail message containing the following two words to
    majordomo@umds.ac.uk:

    subscribe sim

    Alternatively e-mail
    info@mednet.org.uk

    MEETINGS AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

    See the informatics section of NetVet for a more complete and current list of informatics-related activities at <http://netvet.wustl.edu/info.htm>


    June 16-20 and August 18-22, 1997
    Stanford Medical Informatics Short Course
    (See the Jan-Feb, 1997 AVI Newsletter for details)

    June 16 - August 9; July 14 - September 6; August 11 - October 3
    Make the Link Workshop (World Wide Web for Everyone)
    From: "Thomas P. Copley" <
    tcopley@GIGANTOR.ARLINGTON.COM>

    The Make the Link Workshop (World Wide Web for Everyone) is an eight week long distance learning workshop conducted entirely by HTML mail*. It introduces the beginner to the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet's distributed hypermedia information system, and enhances the skills of the somewhat more experienced user as well. The workshop has been newly updated to reflect the latest information on HTML authoring tools, including NetObjects Fusion, Microsoft Front Page and Netscape Navigator Gold. The workshop also includes guidance on how to select an Internet service provider.

    The WWW is a powerful hyper-textual medium for integrating all of the resources of the Internet. You can read through a page of text, and on the spur of the moment, link to related information anywhere in the world. For example, after reading a short piece on twentieth century abstract art, you can link to and view a collection of color prints of paintings by Picasso, Klee, and Mondrian. High school history students reading about Sir Winston Churchill can link to a page where, at the click of a mouse button, recordings of his actual speeches can be played. A business woman in Paris, France can check out the "home page" of her counterpart in Montreal, Canada, complete with her picture and professional vita. There are thousands of computers throughout the world on the Web, and literally millions of interconnected WWW pages, and all are easily accessible from your desktop computer.

    The first graphical WWW browsers became available in 1993. Since the introduction of the hugely successful Netscape Navigator in 1994, WWW browsers have provided access to most of the main Internet functions, including the WWW, FTP, gopher, telnet, USENET news, e-mail, and real-time audio and video. The WWW, or simply, "the Web" is the Internet's "killer application" that integrates a variety of media, including text, images, sound, video and small Java computer programs called applets. For example, a chemistry student can view a three-dimensional picture of a molecule, and view it from any direction or simply make it appear to slowly rotate in space on the screen. New browser scripting languages, such as JavaScript, have been developed for creating a myriad of interactive Web pages.

    Having a WWW home page providing one's personal information has become the 1990's version of the business card, resume, voice mail, and on occasion, electronic recreation area, all rolled into one. In fact, the WWW provides an opportunity to participate and collaborate with others at many levels. It can be a great way to network with colleagues and associates or even to reach potential customers concerning products or services.

    The Make the Link Workshop will focus on how to gain maximum advantage from this simple to use, yet very sophisticated, Internet tool. During the Workshop, you will learn:

    * How to gain access to the WWW, including information on setting up a direct TCP/IP connection to the Internet (SLIP/CSLIP/PPP).

    * How to link to specific Web resources using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). This includes how to construct URLs for various kinds of resources, such as WWW, gopher, FTP, telnet, etc.

    * How to distinguish between various kinds of WWW browsers, including Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Lynx, etc. and the strengths and weaknesses of each.

    * How to navigate Webspace and use various searching tools such as MetaCrawler, SavvySearch, Alta Vista, Infoseek, HotBot, CMU Lycos, WebCrawler, and others.

    * To make WWW bookmarks and organize your bookmarks with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

    * How to effectively and efficiently design your own home page with HTML, and how to install it on a server.

    * The principles of good home page design, in order to project a favorable image for you and/or your employer or business.

    * The advantages and disadvantages of HTML editors, such as NetObjects Fusion, Netscape Navigator Gold, Microsoft FrontPage, Claris Home Page, HoTMetaL, and HTML Assistant, and related utilities.

    Three Make the Link Workshop sessions will be scheduled for this summer. The dates are:

    June Session: June 16 - August 9
    July Session: July 14 - September 6
    August Session: August 11 - October 3

    The cost of the Workshop is $20 US.

    Sign up for ONE session only unless you plan to take the Workshop more than once.. To sign up for one of the Make the Link Workshop sessions, please send an e-mail message to the address:

    majordomo@arlington.com

    and in the body of the message, include:

    subscribe links-jun

    to subscribe to the June session, or

    subscribe links-jul

    to subscribe to July session, or

    subscribe links-aug

    to subscribe to the August session.

    This will automatically put you on the mailing list for more information about the Workshop, and you will receive an acknowledgment with the particulars about signing up, and unsubscribing, should you decide not to participate.

    If you have any difficulty with this procedure or fail to receive a
    response, please send e-mail to this address:

    tcopley@arlington.com

    In order to get the most from this Workshop it is helpful to have either Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or another graphical Web browser actually running one on your own computer directly connected to the Internet. If you wish to run Navigator or another browser you will need to have a computer with a TCP/IP connection, that is, a direct connection to the Internet. Information will be provided during the workshop about how to set up a TCP/IP connection. In order to participate in the Workshop you only need access to e-mail. However, it is very desirable to actually use a WWW browser.

    The Workshop leader, Thomas P. Copley, Ph.D., has taught the popular Make the Link Workshop since 1995. He is also the author of the Tune In the Net Workshop <
    http://www.bearfountain.com/arlington/tune.html>, which will also be conducted this summer. During 1994-5 he taught the Go-pher-it Workshop almost a dozen times. Go-pher-it was one of the first Internet workshops taught entirely by e-mail. Dr. Copley is one of the founders of the Electronic University in San Francisco, and is an experienced instructor of distance learning courses via networks. In addition to consulting for Apple Computer, Inc. on hyper-textual distance learning software, Copley has served on the faculties of Washington State University, Antioch College, and Armstrong University. He is also the Editor of the electronic newsletter the TELELEARNING NETWORK SYNTHESIZER, and the moderator of the de-marketing (distance education) mailing list.

    * A plain ASCII text version is also available.

    THOMAS P. COPLEY <
    tcopley@arlington.com>
    Make the Link Workshop <www.bearfountain.com/arlington/>

    August 14-16, 1997; Newcastle, Australia
    6th International Conference on Health and Medical Informatics Education

    See the *Preliminary Program* on the Conference pages:

    http://www.health.newcastle.edu.au/~wg1/imiawg.htm

    The International Medical Informatics Association, Working Group 1: Health and Medical Informatics Education (IMIA WG1), the Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics (APAMI) and the Health Informatics Society of Australia (HISA) as sponsoring bodies, hosted by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Newcastle, Australia, have pleasure in announcing an international conference on Health and Medical Informatics Education.

    Invited Speakers
    **Education and training of medical informatics in the medical curriculum JAN VAN BEMMEL (The Netherlands)
    **Networking multimedia: Transforming education in health and medical informatics ALEXA MCCRAY (USA)
    **Twenty five years medical informatics education at Heidelberg/Heilbronn: Experiences and
    perspectives in a specialized curriculum for medical informatics FRANZ-JOSEF LEVEN (Germany)
    **Health and medical education for nurses and health service managers EVELYN HOVENGA (Australia)
    **HMI education for HIMs (Health Information Managers) ROSEMARY ROBERTS (Australia)

    Topics:
    -Basic core requirements for health and medical informatics education for all levels of health care professionals.
    -Health and Medical Informatics courses and programs for physicians, for nurses, for other healthcare professionals, eg medical records administrators, health services administrators.
    -Health and Medical Informatics education for informaticians and computer scientists.
    -Programs and courses for specialists in Health and Medical Informatics
    -A framework for recognition and accreditation of Health and Medical Informatics courses.
    -Telematics infrastructure in the delivery of course materials including flexible learning methods, eg distance education.
    -Using multimedia, intranet and World Wide Web applications

    Location:
    The conference will be held from August 14 to August 16 at the David Maddison Building at the Royal Newcastle Hospital, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

    August 23-29, 1997
    15th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence; Nagoya, Japan
    (See the Jan-Feb, 1997 AVI Newsletter for details)

    September 4-6, 1997
    GEOMED '97; Rostock, Germany
    (See the Jan-Feb, 1997 AVI Newsletter for details)

    September 10-14, 1997
    Veterinary Informatics at the 5th World Equine Veterinary Association; Padova, Italy
    (See the July-August, 1996 AVI Newsletter for details)

    October 4-7, 1997
    NAWEB97: Web Course Developers Conference; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

    CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS
    NAWEB '97: Shortening the Distance to Education
    An International Conference to be held at Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
    October 4th - 7th, 1997

    http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/naweb97/naweb97.htm

    The impact of the World Wide Web has been felt throughout the educational world. This conference will focus on practical ways in which the Web is changing education. Topics for the conference include, but are not limited to:

    *Courseware Development for the WWW
    *Evaluating Web-based Education
    *Building Knowledge Bases on the Web
    *Beyond HTML
    *The Web and Distance Education
    *Changing Academia through the Web

    You are invited to share your expertise and ideas by presenting a paper or organizing a panel.

    Submissions should be sent in the form of an abstract of 300-500 words. This abstract will appear in the online conference program if the submission is accepted. Normally, papers will be presented in 30 minutes. The committee particularly welcomes proposals that involve active participation by the conference attendees.

    Online proceedings will be published for this conference. Full papers should be submitted in text or HTML markup to the addresses below. Please use the template for the paper provided at:

    http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/naweb97/template.html

    The following information must be included:

    * title of paper or poster as it should appear in the program
    * full name, address, telephone and fax numbers of presenter(s)
    * e-mail address (and Web address, if available)
    * exact requirements for computing-audio-visual equipment

    Abstracts may be submitted via electronic mail to: Hope.
    Greenberg@uvm.edu

    Submission Deadline: July 4, 1997
    Notification of acceptance will be sent by July 25, 1997
    Submission Deadline for Online Full Paper for Proceedings: August 22, 1997

    Come be a part of a the third NAWEB, a conference specifically devoted to WWW development for education and educators!

    SUGGESTED READING


    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online

    http://www.pnas.org/
    E-mail:
    pnas@nas.edu
    ISSN 1091-6490

    The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States of America is an subscription-based, full-text, electronic version of the print journal of the same title. PNAS is currently offering free access to its site until Decemeber 31, 1997.

    The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, established in 1915, publishes research reports, commentaries, reviews, colloquium papers, and actions of the Academy. In accordance with the guiding principles established by George Ellery Hale in 1914, the Proceedings publishes brief first announcements of the Members' and Foreign Associates' (hereafter referred to as the Members) more important contributions to research and work that appears to a Member to be of particular importance.

    Proceedings is a multidisciplinary journal that covers the physical, biological, and social sciences. Published bi-weekly, Proceedings disseminates the work done by leading researchers and reaches more than 25,000 readers worldwide. Proceedings is ranked as the second most-cited scientific serial in the world by the Institute for Scientific Information.

    PNAS Online, launched in early January 1997, includes all the articles in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences plus the Information for Authors. PNAS Online contains articles in both Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Portable Document Format (PDF), and includes the last four issues of 1996.

    Basic features of PNAS Online:
    ** Browse and search the text of all articles
    ** Access back issues to November 1996
    ** Link from References to the full text of the online article
    ** Includes Medline abstracts of cited articles
    ** View special collections of papers at a glance -- Inaugural Papers, Colloquia, and Reviews
    ** Free access to the list of Academy Members, Tables of Contents, and Abstracts

    Subscription information for both hardcopy and online editions of PNAS is available from
    subspnas@nas.edu.

    Digital Medicine
    From:
    owner-newjour@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

    Digital Medicine <
    http://www.totalweb.co.uk/ic/lifebase/menu.htm>

    Digital Medicine is an electronic newsletter dedicated to bringing you news of the latest electronic medical information products and services available worldwide. Published monthly, this e-mail only publication, is delivered to subscribers for free!

    There is a sample issue available at:

    http://www.totalweb.co.uk/ic/lifebase/dm1.htm

    To subscribe to Digital Medicine and have each issue e-mailed to you every month, please send e-mail with 'SUBSCRIBE DM' in the body of the message
    to:
    dm@kinet.demon.co.uk

    If you ever wish to unsubscribe from Digital Medicine please send e-mail with 'UNSUBSCRIBE DM' in the body of the message to:
    dm@kinet.demon.co.uk

    CLOSING BITS


    Home PCs Rank First in Doing Nothing
    From: Edupage Editors <
    educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu>

    Forget about productivity -- a recent study by the NPD Group found that the majority of the time that home PC is running, it's doing... nothing! The study monitored 10,076 computer-owning households and used its PC Meter software to tally the time the computers sat idle following an initial 60 seconds of no activity on the keyboard or mouse. Fifty-four percent of the time the machines were switched on, they were not being used, and when they were used, the biggest chunk of time (29%) was devoted to "futzing" -- fiddling around with operating systems, organizing files, changing "wallpaper" and screensaver patterns, and altering the speed of the cursor blink. Meanwhile, word processing and business software use took up 16% of the time, and Internet surfing accounted for only 12%. The Sierra Club points out that turning a computer on and leaving it on unused for three hours a day results in about 200 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution every year. (Wall Street Journal 28 Feb 97)

    Technologies Americans Love To Hate
    From: Edupage Editors <
    educom@educom.unc.edu>

    America's Research Group conducted a survey of 1,000 consumers late last year, and discovered that Internet shopping is No. 2 on the list of technologies people wish had never been invented. And No. 1? "What America calls the dreaded voice mail. This is where they're put into a machine that instructs them what to do. They press all these different keys. Ultimately, they never talk to anybody. And many times they find their phone call is never returned. This is not only far and away the thing they most wish was never invented, but it's also probably the biggest negative to customer service today," says ARG founder C. Britt Beemer. Internet shopping came in second because customers found "it was more difficult than I thought it would be. And it took too much time." Another commented, "What happens if I have a problem with the product? I can't shove it in my hard drive and send it back." Meanwhile, car cell phones came in third place: "This was a shock to me," says Beemer. "People don't like seeing other people using a cellular phone in a car. Virtually every woman who was married with children said they thought it was a road hazard... They view car cell phones as devices that jeopardize their families." (Investor's Business Daily 22 May 97)

    Medical Semantics
    From: Martin Hugh-Jones <
    mehj2020@vt8200.vetmed.lsu.edu>

    The following extracts of actual medical reports recently appeared in the newsletter of the Army Air Corps Enlisted Pilots Association ... "The Flying Sergeant".

    "The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1983."

    "By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped and he was feeling fine."

    "The patient is a 79 year old widow who no longer lives with her husband."

    "Discharge status: Alive but without permission."

    "Many years ago the patient had frost bite of the right shoe."

    "The patient refused an autopsy."