Medical webwatch.

It is well worth registering for a free subscription to the professional edition of Medcyclopaedia http://www.amershamhealth.com/medcyclopaedia/medical/index.asp from Amersham Health. This encyclopedia of medical imaging contains in excess of 18,000 key words that accompany more than 10,000 illustrations. Text and images can be copied for noncommercial use in lectures, articles, etc., and the thumbnails open at either high or low resolution. The search engine can be primed to search the Encyclopedia of Medical Imaging's eleven volumes covering "Physics," "Techniques and Procedures," "Normal Anatomy," "Musculoskeletal and Soft Tissue Imaging," "Gastrointestinal and Urogenital Imaging," "Chest and Cardiovascular Imaging," "Neuroradiology and Head and Neck Imaging," and "Paediatric Imaging." Clicking the "mouse/brain" icon will take you to their E-learning package where you can improve your interpretation of medical imaging. The excellent quality images are presented as MRI, CT, x-ray, or drawings, and the accompanying text is fully keyword cross-referenced. It also offers a particularly useful search facility called "search marked text" which will interrogate selected online resources using text that has been highlighted by the reader. Finally, "Face to Face" on the menu offers discussions of clinical cases.

NHS Prodigy http://www.prodigy.nhs.uk/indexMain.asp is a source of the best available evidence appertaining to common conditions and symptoms managed by primary healthcare professionals, nurses, pharmacists, general practitioners, and GP registrars. The multidisciplinary team at the Sowerby Centre for Health Informatics at Newcastle, UK, uses rigorous procedures to develop, and keep up-to-date, around 170 guidance topics for both acute and chronic illnesses. The availability of the information in the "Toolbox" enables real time use of the "Guidelines" during consultations. There are categories offering "Information as a Learning Resource," "Information for Patients," and an "A to Z" of drugs. The Toolbox has a dedicated browser with an expert system to facilitate a quick focus on advice from pertinent sources. There is a section dedicated to drugs and prescription guidance. This website can provide support to the clinician during the consultation process.

Nuclear Medicine Teaching File http://gamma.wustl.edu/home.html is maintained by Jerold Wallis MD and was created with the help of Michelle Miller, Tom Miller M.D. Ph.D., Thomas H. Vreeland MD, Henry Royal MD, Sherman Owens, and K. S. Sampathkumaran, MS. It is based at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, School of Medicine, Washington University. The goal of the teaching file is to provide practice for nuclear medicine residents and physicians in the interpretation of nuclear medicine studies. Images and diagnosis are discussed under: "History," "Findings," "Discussion," "Follow up," "Major Teaching Points." Cases can also be selected without the diagnoses so that physicians can form their own opinion before revealing full diagnoses and discussions.

The University of Wisconsin Medical School presents Gross Anatomy http://www.anatomy.wisc.edu/courses/gross/index.html, a catalogue of 27 films that follow the dissection of a cadaver. This is a no-frills dissection tutorial that is comprehensive, enjoyable, and very informative. Quick-Time required.

The National CJD Surveillance Unit http://www.cjd.ed.ac.uk/ is based at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, where a team of clinical neurologists, neuropathologists and scientists monitor the incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Their website summarizes the research in progress at the CJD unit and also provides some background information about CJD and other human spongiform encephalopathies under the following sections: "Surveillance," "Information on Variant CJD," "Care and Support," "Practical Information," and "Research." There is also an international links listing.

Emergency Preparedness and Response http://www.bt.cdc.gov/from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has six main sections: "Bioterrorism Agents," "Mass Casualties," "Chemical Emergencies," "Natural Disasters," "Radiation Emergencies," and "Recent Outbreaks." These are further subdivided into "Information for Public," and "Information for Professionals." There is no denying that the range of possibilities for serious public disruption are many and varied, and recent history has shown that if it can happen, then at some time it will happen. Professionals may be specially trained for such eventualities, or they may be untrained and yet called upon to assist in such emergencies, or they may even be one of the victims. Timely consideration of the medical implications of such major incidents is an academically interesting application of one's time, as well as having personal implications. As a resource for starting upon such a quest this website is admirable, its size being offset by a well structured navigation system.

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