EBSCO Publishing Expanding Access to Evidence-Based Material for National Health Service (NHS) Physicians across England.

DynaMed([TM]) Availability Enhances Point-of-Care Solution for English Clinicians

IPSWICH, Mass. -- As the result of a procurement undertaken by the National Health Service (NHS) of England, DynaMed([TM]) is now offered as a key component of the new Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) Service for the NHS community. As such, this evidence-based reference product created by physicians and made available by EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO), is now accessible at the primary point of care, for use by every physician and other health care professional across England.

NHS is the renowned government agency that manages and coordinates all aspects of the health care system in the UK. It is the largest single health care organization in Europe and often a model for all of the national health systems throughout the continent. Providing NHS physicians with unlimited usage of DynaMed, including via PDA, greatly expands their access to evidence-based materials.

With clinically-organized summaries for thousands of topics, DynaMed is the only evidence-based reference resource shown to answer most clinical questions during practice. DynaMed is updated daily and monitors the content of over 500 medical journals and systematic evidence review databases directly (and indirectly by using many journal review services). Each publication is reviewed cover-to-cover, and each article is evaluated for clinical relevance and scientific validity. The new evidence is then integrated with existing content, and overall conclusions are changed as appropriate representing a synthesis of the best available evidence.

According to EBSCO Publishing's President, Tim Collins, the collaboration with the NHS is a great reinforcement of the value that DynaMed brings to physicians worldwide. "DynaMed is rapidly taking its place as a critical resource at the point-of-care not only in Europe and North America, but all over the globe, including developing nations where it is truly invaluable. Our customers and focus groups have emphasized that the synthesized information offered by DynaMed is precisely the way in which health care professionals prefer this clinical material be presented." Collins continued, "When we acquired DynaMed, we made a number of enhancements to the product's interface, but its rigorous standards for including only the best available evidence continue to be its cornerstone and the element that most sets it apart from other clinical reference tools. This arrangement with the NHS is an exciting partnership, and undoubtedly will provide great benefits to English clinicians and their patients."

For more information on DynaMed, visit: www.ebscohost.com/dynamed

About Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS)

In October 2006 SCHIN Ltd (a not for profit company) and EBSCO Publishing were awarded the contract to provide the Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) Service for NHS England. This new service will be an enhancement and expansion of the existing NHS PRODIGY Knowledge service and will help generalist clinicians make evidence-based decisions about the healthcare of their patients. The CKS service will provide a set of Topic Reviews about the common conditions managed in primary and first contact care, a news service and links to further information including patient information leaflets and DynaMed. The Topic Reviews will include summary background information; options for management; information on the effectiveness of the management options; and information on tests, follow-up and referral. These will be available in a number of formats including full text, Clinical Summaries, and Immediate Reference (designed to be read in 15 seconds or less). This new service will be web-based and freely available throughout England. A key feature of the CKS service is that it will provide clear recommendations, a concise explanation of why the recommendation was made, and a clear link to a summary of the evidence that underpins it. Thus the new service will not just provide a robust summary of the evidence of the options for treatment, but also clear and concise information on what to do and when to do it, practical information on how to do it and explanation as to why.

About EBSCO

EBSCO Publishing is the world's premier database aggregator, offering a suite of approximately 250 full-text and secondary research databases. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all medical professionals (doctors, nurses, medical librarians, social workers, hospital administrators, etc.). The company's product lines include proprietary databases such as CINAHL([R]), DynaMed([TM]), SocINDEX([TM]) and SPORTDiscus([TM]) as well as dozens of leading licensed databases such as MEDLINE([R]), PsycARTICLES([R]) and PsycINFO([R]). Databases are powered by EBSCOhost([R]), the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world. For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: http://www.ebscohost.com, or contact: [e-mail].

EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.