Medical webwatch.

The three icons on the front page of The Neurological Exam http://icarus.med.utoronto.ca/NeuroExam/ are hyper-linked to short audiovisual tutorials that describe cranial, motor, and sensory examination technique. The explanations progress slowly through each procedure and are excellent for students. The continuity of presenter and simulate patient induce a relaxed pedantic experience. The author & narrator is Marika Hohol MD FRCP(C), Staff-Neurologist, St. Michael's Hospital, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and the model is her niece. The videos are accompanied by notes on right side of video screen page for easy reference. May I suggest that you check out the "Credits" for both the "Contributors" and especially the "Dedication"?

CME Ophthalmology http://www.asseenfromhere.com/ is targeted at "practicing ophthalmologists and ophthalmology residents in the United States," and at the time of writing, there are 72 audio- and 3 video-casts presented by guest speakers. The CME Course Director is Joshua A. Young, MD, assistant professor of ophthalmology accredited by New York University School of Medicine for CME courses. They describe their podcasts as "A journal club in your gym. Each episode of As Seen From Here is like a journal club led by the author of a paper. These guests are motivated to talk about their work and are in the best position to describe its relevance to us as clinicians. And since the programs load onto your MP3 player, you can listen while commuting or even while working out."

Therapeutics Initiative http://www.ti.ubc.ca/pages/letter.html is a bimonthly letter targeting identified problematic therapeutic issues and is published by the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in cooperation with the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. The goal of the Drug Assessment Working Group is to clarify the state of scientific evidence regarding effectiveness and safety of drug therapy and to relate that evidence to the care of individual patients. The process involves a literature review and development of the message by different working groups of the Therapeutics Initiative. The Drug Assessment Working Group consists of 3 family physicians, 2 clinical pharmacologists, 1 biostatistician, 1 epidemiologist, and 1 clinical trial expert. A draft of the letter is reviewed by specialists who are expert in the particular therapeutic area and members of the Scientific Information and Education Committee before the letter is disseminated. The Initiative is an independent organization, which is at arms length from government, pharmaceutical industry, and other vested interest groups.

CDC WONDER http://wonder.cdc.gov/ (Wide-ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research) is a single point of access to a wide variety of reports and numeric public health data. Grouped under the 7 main categories on the front page are numerous subcategories that link to CDC archived material or to outsourced data. The outsourced "hosts" are listed under the A to Z index. CDC WONDER certainly lives up to its commitment to: "promote information-driven decision making by placing timely, useful facts in the hands of public health practitioners and researchers." The Dataset "Summary" on left menu gives descriptions of the various data sets and the FAQ on the top menu is a must read.

Surgical Tutor http://www.surgical-tutor.org.uk/defaulthome.htm is authored by Mr. Stephen Parker, BSc, DipMedEd, MS, FRCS (Gen), FRCS (Eng & Ed) UK. Emphasis is placed on the British MRCS examination, and this is reflected in the organization of much of the educational material. Topics on the full menu include: "Intercollegiate Revision Notes," "Clinical Tutorials," "Radiology Gallery," "Examinations," and "Journal Club."

On the home page of Sepsis.com http://sepsis.com/index.jsp choose "Resources and tools" to access sepsis cascade, a detailed 5 minute flash presentation with voiceover and graphics. Another excellent presentation on this page of the Lilly website is the Micro-circulation video. On the front page menu "Sepsis overview" presents a rounded discourse about sepsis and its implications for patients, institutions and society, while the "Institutional approach" tab describes diagnosis and treatment.

Free CME http://www.freecme.com/gindex.php are free CME courses from Thomson Scientific & Healthcare (free registration required). The courses are certified by Thomson American Health Consultants who are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The courses are listed by topic or by specialty or credit type. Before going to the webcast a description of each course can be viewed along with the intended audience. The courses are predominantly text based although some are webcasts. All are accompanied by posttests.

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