Point 'n' Click's Internet Pointers

By the GUI Brothers*

[This is a column written by two members of the Section on Computers and Other Technologies (SCOT) of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP-SCOT) to keep pediatricians informed about ways to access useful information on the Internet. Send suggestions for this column to <spooner@aol.com> or <dstetson@aol.com>.]

Letters

Dear Point 'n' Click: I'm shelling out $20 a month for Internet access through a commercial service, but all I can seem to find is wild conspiracy theories and pictures of supermodels! isn't there anything useful for pediatricians on the 'Net?

--A. Jacobi, M.D., F.A.A.P. jacobi@pediatrics.com

Click: Sure, Abe! Just aim your Web browser at:

http://www.lhl.uab.edu/pedinfo

for a great index of pediatrics-related Internet resources.

Point: My brother actually finds the supermodel pictures to be quite useful in his practice, but I prefer reources like this:

OMIM

Victor McCusick's Mendelian Inheritance in Man, a catalog of dysmorphic and metabolic inborn syndromes, has been available in electronic form since 1963. As part of a suite of genetics databases made available by Johns Hopkins University, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) is perhaps second only to MEDLINE as a useful on-line resource for pediatricians. If you have a World Wide Web or a Gopher browser, you can search the OMIM database and retrieve summaries describing syndromes from among the thousands in the OMIM database.

To connect to OMIM, use a WWW browser to connect to the URL:

http://www3.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Omim/
From there you can click on "Search OMIM" and navigate to the search screen (this is an old version of the screen, but you get the idea):

By forming a query in the text box, selecting the fields to be searched by the check boxes, and pressing the "Submit Query" button, you will get a listing of the titles of OMIM articles which match your query. For instance, submitting the query

macrocephaly and pectus excavatum

retrieves these articles:

which you may then read by clicking on the title. The entry numbers with asterisks indicate entries with multimedia elements (pictures, usually), so OMIM can help you with visual diagnosis!

To access OMIM through a gopher browser, use the address:

gopher.gdb.org

and navigate to the OMIM screen ("Search Databases at Hopkins.") You will be able to submit the same types of queries as in the WWW version.

Dear Point 'n' Click: I'm tired of connecting to that slow http://www.lhl.uab.edu/pedinfo home page to learn about new pediatric resources. Plus, I'm a pretty eclectic guy who wants to learn about Internet stuff outside of pediatrics. What should I do?

--Otis Media, M.D. omedia@amoxicillin.org

Point: As Forrest Gump says, "eclectic is as eclectic does." Perhaps you ought to join a mailing list that keeps you posted about new medical net resources.

Click: My brother is right, for once. There are several ways to keep abreast of new medical resources on the Internet. The mailing list below sends out messages with descriptions and access instructions every week.

MMATRIX Mailing List

"How do I find the good stuff?" Pediatricians with Internet acccess often ask this question, overwhelmed by the large volume of junk and paucity of valuable resources on the Internet. Subscription to this mailing list will keep you up-to-date with new medical resources on the Internet.

MMATRIX-L (Medical Matrix Mailing List) is the project of Gary Malet, MD, and Lee Hancock, a medical librarian. These guys have devoted their lives, it seems, to cataloging medical stuff on the Internet. In conjuction with their web page at

http://kuhttp.cc.ukans.edu/cwis/units/medcntr/Lee/HOMEPAGE.HTML

they maintain this mailing list to keep physicians apprised of the rapidly changing Internet.

To subscribe to MMATRIX-L, send an e-mail message to (case doesn't matter):

LISTSERV@KUMCHTTP.MC.UKANS.EDU

where the first line of the message is:

SUBSCRIBE MMATRIX-L

Make sure you send this message from an e-mail account your regularly use. You will then receive instructions by e-mail about how to use the list (SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS in case you want to "unsubscribe" youself later). Once you are subscribe, you will automatically receive messages informing you of new Internet resources and brief descriptions of each.

Point: Good idea, my esteemed brother, to send Jacobi off to the web page you run. That should get him cruising down the "information superhighway."

Click: "Highway?" -- No way! You're always getting that wrong, my overoptimistic sibling. The internet road is still an undeveloped, tertiary, rural by-way filled with ruts and ravines not well enough defined to be called potholes. But it's getting better every day as new resources show up and people find useful information.

Point: Right -- even our government, that never seems to fix the potholes, is in the business of making information available. Some from the IRS, some from the Dept. of Commerce, but what caught my eye was the Clinical Practice Guidelines from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. If the government's going to write this stuff, it's nice that they put it out where you can find it (with effort).

They've got one on otitis media with effusion and another on sickle cell disease. Our curious readers can get to them by pointing a gopher (not a womprat, mind you--only a gopher) to the National Library of Medicine, Health Services/Technology Assessment Texts, AHCPR Supported Clinical Practice Guidelines. From the list of 13 or so readers can get the ones they want, including the versions written for patients.

Click: Maybe next time we'll be able to discuss what it means to "point" a mid-sized furry mammal to a library. Do you suppose the librarian would let them in?

Point: Only with a current lending card. Unless it's one of the really big ones from Minnesota. They can get in anywhere.

*Doug Stetson, MD, FAAP, and Andy Spooner, MD, Candidate FAAP

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