A Welcome Site For Computer-Sore Eyes
by Ron Schaumburg
"Data Smog" is computer speak for the ever-thickening haze of digital information now blanketing our cultural landscape. If you've ever tried to locate specific information using a Web search engine (such as Yahoo or AltaVista), you know that a simple query can generate a daunting list of thousands of possible sites. Navigating through this fog, and separating the pearls from the pea soup, is a challenge even for the computer-savvy Ob/Gyn.
A new Web site, OBGYN.net, offers a way out of the miasma. Developed by Elecomm, a Texas-based computer services company, OBGYN.net is a centralized Internet resource devoted to women's health. According to Roberta Speyer, Elecomm's president and CEO, this ambitious site is a nexus where the interests of doctors, patients, and the health-care industry converge on a global scale. Since its launch over a year ago, pages on the site have been accessed nearly two million times.
Three sites in one
OBGYN.net actually is three overlapping Web sites in one, with separate sections, or home pages, intended for use by health-care professionals, the medical industry, and laypeople. Each section, updated weekly, offers a similar mix of articles, news, practical tools, and categorized links to Internet resources. As a result, OBGYN.net is a cross between a newsletter, a hospitality suite at a professional convention, a community bulletin board, and a "you Are Here" sign at the Internet mall.
Both the content and the structure of the site are doctor-directed. An international advisory board of physicians consults with the Elecomm staff to determine the quality and appropriateness of the content. In additions, the site draw on the services of an international council of volunteer physicians in over 30 countries, a group of representatives from several states in the U.S., and a network of more than a dozen special correspondents with expertise in fields ranging from laparoscopy to midwifery.
At this stage in its evolution, OBGYN.net doesn't offer a lot in the way of original, peer-reviewed medical information. You'll find a smattering of brief anecdotal articles addressing such topics as clinical experience with RU-486 or the use of the auditory evoked response test to evaluate intrauterine fetal asphyxia. (Interested authors are invited to submit articles; the advantages of Web publishing include rapid turnaround and virtually no restrictions on length. Speyer says her company has formed alliances with several major publishers to make available an archive of articles from current and past issues of various journals. Such articles can be word-searched, downloaded, and printed.
For Speyer, the main purpose of OBGYN.net is to server as a dynamic resource for the women's health community. One useful feature, for example, is a links to a free MEDLINE search service, which puts the entire National Library of Medicine at your disposal. There also is an on-line drug database. Bulletin boards allow women to ask questions of, and receive answers from, the site's medical consultants. Reading the posting on these boards is a good way to stay informed about your patients' needs and concerns.
Recently added to the site is a "chat" feature. After you download and install a piece of free software called a plug-in, you can conduct typed "conversations" with other people currently on line. In the near future, the chat line will allow physicians to take part in real-time Q&A sessions and CME programs with experts around the world.
There also is an index of nearly 900 acronyms. If you have forgotten what ZP means, for example, type in the letters and the program will spell it out for you, PDG.
Residents looking for positions can post their CVs--complete with photograph--for perusal by prospective employers. Physicians also can create simple Web page for themselves using the site's basic fill-in-the-blanks template. Those seeking to buy or sell their practice or to relocate can post free ads. These won't win you any design awards, but they do increase your visibility. If you want help creating a more ambitious site, Elecomm gladly will tell you about your options (and quote some rates).
One very useful feature is the Association and Societies index, which lists more than 350 state, national, and international groups. Readers (Speyer objects to the term "users") can access calendars of events, find out about upcoming CME programs and specialty conventions, or link to an association's own Web site. You can keep tabs on ACOG meetings, or find out what is happening at the Sociedad de Obstetricia y Ginecologia de Buenos Aires. In keeping with the community spirit of the site, you easily can add your own organization's events to the calendar by filling out a simple form.
To cut through data smog, OBGYN.net provides a categorized and annotated list of pertinent Web sites. Sub-menus let you zero in on Internet resources that offer information on subjects ranging from operative gynecology and gynecologic oncology to endocrinology and infertility. Rather than simply listing the Web addresses (URLs) for these sites, OBGYN.net provides succinct one- or two-line descriptions to help you identify those most likely to be valuable.
The medical industry section of OBGYN.net offers product catalogues, promotional information, press releases, economic reports, and other company-related material. If you want to find a supplier for anything from U/S equipment to the latest examining tables, you might check here first.
Tell your patients
Even if you don't spend your time poking around on the Internet, many of your patients do. Women today are hungry for health-care information, and sites such as OBGYN.net, with their on-line forums and e-mail lists, are excellent sources of facts and support. You'll be doing your computer-literate patients a favor by telling them about OBGYN.net and other similar resources. You might also consider asking Internet-capable members of your office staff to become familiar with these sites so they can find and print out articles that address your patients' concerns.
If anything, OBGYN.net is almost too ambitious. The opening menu alone requires you to scroll down the equivalent of four printed pages with two columns of options. For first-time visitors, encountering the vast range of available features--from e-mail forums to news articles to announcements--can be a little daunting. A more streamlined design, and a less complicated interface, would help.
But if you feel lost, or are having trouble finding the information you want, simply scroll to the bottom of each page. There you'll find the handy Search button. Clicking here launches the site's internal search engine, which will generate a list of the relevant links found on OBGYN.net's many pages. The site also includes a help feature that walks you through some of the more intricate steps involved with getting the most out of the Internet, such as installing a software plug-in.
Speyer says that in the near future, the search feature also will display "hints" from Web sites outside of OBGYN.net. The site will incorporate more of the evolving Web technologies, such as real-time (streaming) audio and video. The combination of chat, sound, and images will allow physicians to schedule on-line meetings, take part in CME programs, and stay in touch with colleagues around the world.
This article was originally published in the September 1997 issue of OBG Management magazine.