``America's Best Hospitals'' Embrace MD Consult; Family of Online Clinical Information Services is a Hit With the Medical Community.

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 6, 2002

All 17 hospitals that made this year's US News & World Report's annual `Honor Roll' of best hospitals provide their physicians with access to MD Consult, the family of online clinical information services designed specifically for physicians and other health care professionals.

The secret to MD Consult's success is a subscription-based, advertising-free service that provides physicians with quick access to a collection of the most authoritative and comprehensive clinical content available online. MD Consult offers a broad array of clinical resources including full-text reference books and journal articles, customizable patient education handouts, drug database, daily compilations of articles and announcements from over 100 key publications, synopses of popular medicine in the press and scores of other resources.

"We are delighted that these exceptional institutions look to MD Consult for their clinical information needs," said Bill Haines, Vice President of Product Development. "MD Consult has become an integral part of the daily workflow of hospitals, medical schools and private practices not only across our nation, but on an international scale as well."

U.S. News & World Report's 13th annual edition of "America's Best Hospitals" cites institutions noted for exceptional specialized care, focusing on 17 medical specialties including heart, cancer and respiratory disorders. More and more patients are seeking out the expertise of specialists resulting in an increased demand for specialized medical information resources. MD Consult answered this need by launching a series of specialty services including MD Consult Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, MD Consult Pain Medicine and MD Consult Infectious Disease. Each of MD Consult's specialty services complement its flagship offering, MD Consult's Core Collection, an extensive collection of clinical resources across a broad range of medical disciplines.

"Physicians have been telling us that they like MD Consult because it helps them efficiently find and use information, whether they need to identify therapeutic options, catch-up on new developments, or educate a patient about his condition," adds Haines.

Honor Roll delegates that provide MD Consult to their staffs include:

-- Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis

-- Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston

-- Cleveland Clinic

-- Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.

-- Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

-- Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore

-- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

-- Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

-- New York Presbyterian Hospital

-- Stanford University Hospital, Stanford, Calif.

-- UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles

-- University of California, San Francisco Medical Center

-- University of Chicago Hospitals

-- University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor

-- University of Pittsburgh Hospitals

-- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

-- University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle

-- Vanderbilt University Hospital and Clinic, Nashville

About MD Consult

MD Consult is a well-respected source of clinical information within the medical community, helping physicians answer clinical questions and stay abreast of recent developments online. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, MD Consult is a part of world-leading health science publisher, Elsevier Science.

The MD Consult Clinical Knowledge System offers an integrated family of online medical information services, which may be used stand-alone or in combination with each other. Its flagship service, MD Consult Core Collection, was introduced in 1997 and is accessed today by more than 270,000 health professionals under paid subscription plans. Over 1,000 health care organizations and more than 90 percent of the North American medical schools license the service. Each month subscribers conduct more than 1.5 million information searches using the service, primarily during daytime practice hours.

MD Consult also offers specialty-focused services including: MD Consult Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, MD Consult Infectious Disease, and MD Consult Pain Medicine. All services deliver single point, integrated access to trusted medical content including: leading reference books, full-text articles from influential medical journals, MEDLINE and other databases, peer-reviewed clinical practice guidelines, a comprehensive drug database, customizable patient education handouts, clinical trials databases, continuing medical education materials, and a suite of features which identify and report on current developments in medicine. Physicians or organizations can preview services and register for a free trial at www.mdconsult.com, or call 1-800-401-9962 for more information.