Health Findings From Institute To Be Free Online
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Activists who believe that the results of federally funded research ought to be available  free to the public won a victory this week with a deal that will ensure Web posting of studies financed  by the  Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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A website aims to allow patients to see how private and voluntary hospitals and health providers are performing.
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(InfoWorld) - In a bid to speed up the dissemination of scientific discoveries, the European Commission said Thursday it plans to shake up the old-fashioned world of scientific publishing by throwing its weight behind a move to make scientific research results freely available on the Internet. Until now, results have been published in journals along with peer reviews of the research. Publishers of scientific, technical, and medical journals argue that the peer review system wouldn't work as reliably if results were published willy-nilly online. "Nobody will benefit if a major European industry is undermined and with it the peer review system upon which science and society depend," said the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) in a statement ahead of Thursday's announcement by the Commission. The publishers, which include giants like Reed Elsevier and McGraw-Hill, cosigned a petition to Europe's lawmakers dubbed the Brussels Declaration, calling for leniency. The Commission is hosting a two-day conference starting Thursday with the publishers as well as with advocates of a free, Internet-based model for scientific publishing. In its statement, the Commission made it clear that it favors freer access to research results. It is planning to spend about â¬85 million ($111 million) over the next two years improving the digital storage and online accessibility of scientific results. Digital technologies are reshaping how research information is viewed, analyzed, and eventually published, the Commission said. For example, about 90 percent of all science journals are now available online, often by subscription. But digital technologies are also leading to more "open access" publishing. This provides free and wide access to publications online. Better access to research data also opens the way to new types of uses and services, often through the reusing of past results as the raw material for new experimentation. However, the Commission added that online access to current scientific information does not guarantee its future availability. Digital information has a limited lifetime and needs to be maintained over time. Better tools and organizational steps are necessary to ensure digital preservation and thus prevent the loss of important scientific information, the Commission said. "The digital revolution has led the European scientific community to suggest that an alternative publishing model with better access to research publications could further stimulate research excellence and innovation," Commissioner for Research Janez Potocnik told delegates at the conference. Publishers association STM had argued that it would be wrong for the Commission to favor one business model over another and urged it to back off from the scientific publishing sector. But the association changed its tune Thursday, after learning how serious the Commission is about taking action. "I am pleased that the Commission has recognized the complex issues that surround the publication and preservation of scientific information and has seen fit to initiate a dialogue rather than prematurely imposing a policy that could undermine STM publishing, which is such an important industry for Europe," said Michael Mabe, CEO of STM in a statement released Thursday. The STM welcomes the Commission's action plan "in the area of creating a level playing field for publication business models, recognizing that further research on preservation and economics is essential before adopting any policy positions," the association said in its latest statement.
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Patients in Duke University's health system can now go to one Web site to pay medical bills, schedule doctor appointments and eventually view their personal medical histories.
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WASHINGTON Oct 27, 2004 - A new online medical journal will make its research articles available to the public free of charge and accessible through the Internet.
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Harvard University will soon begin posting research and articles produced by its faculty on the Internet free of charge.
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Google Health will let people create a profile that includes information about medications and medical records.
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Check out a new free market data service.
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InfoWorld - In a bid to speed up the dissemination of scientific discoveries, the European Commission said Thursday it plans to shake up the old-fashioned world of scientific publishing by throwing its weight behind a move to make scientific research results freely available on the Internet.
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John D. Halamka has updated his institution's medical libraries for a Web 2.0 world.
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People with chronic disease should think twice before relying on the internet for health advice, research suggests.
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Blog: Mapping software for modeling the path of infectious diseases made available as open-source.
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A long-simmering debate over whether the results of government-funded research should be made freely available to the public could take a big step toward resolution as members of a House and Senate conference committee meet today to finalize the 2008 Department of Health and Human Services...
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Health obsessives will be breaking out in a sweat when they read the latest research: browsing medical websites can be bad for you.
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Just over a month after the leader of Google&#39;s health information project&#160;left the company, the vice president who stepped in for him on an interim basis reiterated the company&#39;s commitment to this effort.Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, took the stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Wednesday to explain Google&#39;s motivations for its health initiative, going over some points her predecessor on the health team and other executives have made in the past.&quot;There has been so much speculation about what Google might do [in this area] that we wanted to clarify what are our interests and our intentions,&quot; she said in an interview with IDG News Service after her speech.Essentially, Google recognizes that a majority of people begin health-related inquiries online at its search engine, instead of at a health Web site, so the company sees demand for an improved research experience for these users, she said.At the same time, the healthcare industry generates a massive amount of data that Google is in a good position to help organize and make available to patients and their families, Mayer said.&quot;We&#39;re not trying to be all things to all people, but the majority of users looking for health information are already coming to us. And there is a really interesting computer science problem to solve here with just the sheer volume of data. That&#39;s what&#39;s made it really interesting [for us] to participate in this space,&quot; she said.By digitizing health records and giving control over them to the patients, they will be able to make better informed decisions, she said during her presentation.With health records stored in a central server, patients will be able to access them from anywhere, whether they move to a new city or are traveling while on vacation, so that, in an emergency, unfamiliar health care providers can get a comprehensive view of their health history, she said.People would also be able to quickly and easily share records with friends and family if they choose, she said.When the news of&#160;Adam Bosworth&#39;s resignation&#160;was confirmed by Google, the company made a point of saying that its health project was alive and kicking, and that Mayer would steer the effort until a permanent replacement was found.&quot;Google is moving forward with work on our health products,&quot; a Google spokesman said at the time.The project hasn&#39;t yet yielded a specific service or product, but, in August, The New York Times reported that Google has shown a Google Health prototype to health professionals.According to the Times, the Google Health prototype is designed to let individuals create a health profile for themselves that includes information about medications and conditions. Google Health also features a &quot;health guide&quot; with suggested treatments and drug interaction warnings, pages with health-related reminders and health provider directories, the Times reported then.Google also has given regular updates about the Google Health efforts. In March, Bosworth authored a blog post in which he outlined a series of issues and concerns related to finding and trusting health information on the Internet.In June, Google announced the formation of the Google Health Advisory Council. In that blog posting, a Google official explained: &quot;We want to help users make more empowered and informed healthcare decisions, and have been steadily developing our ability to make our search results more medically relevant and more helpful to users.&quot;Google plans to offer more details about its health project at a future date, Mayer said.Google isn&#39;t without competitors in this endeavor. Rival&#160;Microsoft launched earlier this month an online service&#160;for helping patients take control of their health records and monitor their medical conditions.The Web 2.0 Summit ends Friday.&#160;
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Journal of unusual research projects and host of famous awards ceremony to offer free issues online.
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By LEAH CARLINER  The University of California at San Diego recently launched a new feature on its Web site that allows users to fill out questionnaires on their personal experiences with cholesterol-lowering drugs, or statins.