Cisco, Agilent, Brigham & Women's Hospital Applaud SKOLAR Continuing Medical Education Program; SKOLAR, M.D. First Online System for User-Initiated Professional Learning.

Business Editors & High-Tech/Health/Medical Writers

NEW ORLEANS & PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2001

Leaders in the healthcare and technology industries are applauding the decision by the American Medical Association's Physician Recognition Award Program (AMA PRA) to approve Stanford SKOLAR, M.D. as the first participant in a new pilot program evaluating physician-initiated and physician self-directed Internet-based Continuing Medical Education.

SKOLAR, an Internet knowledge service provider that is Stanford University's first branded spin-off, is an interactive knowledge acquisition system that allows physicians to earn AMA PRA category 1 credit by answering questions that arise in the course of practice.

Stanford SKOLAR, M.D. was developed at Stanford University School of Medicine by an inter-disciplinary team of physicians, computer scientists and engineers headed by Dr. Ken Melmon, then Stanford's associate dean of Postgraduate Medical Education (now Arthur Bloomfield Professor of Medicine emeritus), to meet physicians' needs for ready knowledge to support decision-making and continuous learning. SKOLAR's success within the Stanford environment prompted Stanford's unprecedented decision to spin SKOLAR out as an independent, for-profit company.

"SKOLAR's agreement with the AMA validates what we have known for some time. To be successful, physicians must be lifelong learners. By leveraging the technology of the Internet to integrate knowledge, SKOLAR integrates doing and learning. Stanford SKOLAR, M.D. represents the first time that a world-class university has been part of the process of helping professionals learn while doing, and getting credit for it," said Dr. Eugene Bauer, vice president for the Medical Center and Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

"SKOLAR allows physicians to learn in-context while solving patient problems. Professionals, like physicians, learn best if they are solving real problems in the course of doing their jobs, while they are hungry for knowledge," said Paul Lippe, CEO, SKOLAR.

"We at Brigham & Women's Hospital have been using SKOLAR as a teaching tool for our residents and house staff. Now we will be able to give the full-time physicians tools to make practice as learning-rich as being a resident," said Bob Goldszer, vice chairman of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston.

"Learning is the killer application on the Internet. The AMA-SKOLAR announcement represents the first time that a pre-eminent university such as Stanford has moved into the role of sustaining lifelong learning with the same commitment as it supports full-time students. Working professionals learn primarily in the course of doing their jobs, not by returning to a classroom setting. By providing a rigorous system of doing and learning, and giving continuing education credit in the world's most learning-intensive profession, SKOLAR validates the way professionals really learn," said Howard Block, managing director Education Services, Bank of America.

"By delivering Web-based knowledge for continuous learning and decision-making, SKOLAR gives Agilent the ability to have a world-class digital library and electronic classroom available on its Internet-enabled patient monitoring solutions," said David Russell, worldwide marketing manger of Agilent's Patient Monitoring Division.

"SKOLAR represents a new category of Knowledge Service Provider for medical professionals, with the immediacy and reach of the Internet with the depth and commitment to quality of an academic medical institution," said Pascal Detemmerman, industry marketing manager for Health and Education for Cisco EMEA.

About SKOLAR, M.D. (www.skolar.com)

SKOLAR, M.D. was commercially launched in May 2000, but has four years of user experience behind it. Originally developed for staff physicians and students at Stanford Medical School, it rapidly became indispensable, and plans were made within the University for a spin-off. Stanford retains a majority stake in SKOLAR, and panels drawn from the Stanford School of Medicine help to oversee content.