Hearst Business Media Appoints Donald M. Nielsen, M.D., President, First DataBank.

NEW YORK -- Hearst Business Media President Richard P. Malloch today announced the appointment of Donald Nielsen, M.D., as president of First DataBank. Nielsen will begin his new role on August 1, 2006 and will be based at First DataBank headquarters in San Bruno, California.

Malloch said, "Don has impressive clinical credentials and a national profile in efforts to influence the quality and safety of health care for hospitals and health systems. Don joins First DataBank at an exciting time. With 10 years of very strong growth, the company is well-positioned to capitalize on its leadership position as it moves into areas such as physician drug order entry, electronic prescribing and electronic health records."

Nielsen joins First DataBank from the American Hospital Association (AHA), where he served as senior vice president for quality leadership beginning in 1998. In that capacity, he provided leadership for national quality efforts that influenced the quality and safety of service provided by AHA's 4,800 member hospitals and health systems. Nielsen created and implemented a well-defined national AHA and hospital quality agenda based on the Institute of Medicine's Report, "Crossing the Quality Chasm." In conjunction with the McKesson Corporation, Nielsen established a national quality award for achievement in improving care processes consistent with this report. He also designed and implemented the framework for the National Hospital Quality Alliance, the first national performance recording system for all hospitals. Prior to his tenure at AHA, Nielsen spent 13 years at Kaiser Permanente, where he ultimately became vice president for performance measurement. While at Kaiser, he organized and led the development and implementation of the first national reporting system for managed health care performance.

"It is a tremendous honor to be selected as President of First DataBank and to join Hearst Corporation," said Nielsen. "With its focus on patient safety, First DataBank has provided critical information to all health care professionals to ensure the safe use and delivery of medications. I look forward to working with all of my colleagues at First DataBank in continuing and expanding our leadership role in the provision of drug information, and to our being a key contributor in the development of the nation's electronic health information infrastructure."

First DataBank is the leading provider of context-relevant, integrated drug information. For over 25 years First DataBank has partnered with information system developers throughout the healthcare continuum to make drug content relevant from the perspectives of multiple end users, and executable at the point of need. The Company has successfully delivered proven drug knowledge bases for integration into a wide range of applications, with particular expertise in clinical decision support within the workflow. Together with its development partners, First DataBank helps reduce the incidence of medication errors and adverse drug events, which promises to lower healthcare costs and improve patient care.

Hearst Business Media (HBM) (www.hearst.com/business_media), a division of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com), operates more than 20 business-to-business information services (including First DataBank), electronic databases, and publications. The Group has holdings in the automotive, electronic, medical/pharmaceutical, and finance industries.