Literature

White coat and pajamas: In Italy, the pen has proved mightier than the scalpel. This year a cancer specialist Paolo Cornaglia- Ferraris, has exposed the rot in Italy's health care system in his best-selling novel. It's title translated into English reads "White coats and pajamas: Doctor's guilt in Italy's health-care disaster". His gumption to speak openly about the political maneuvering for academic and clinical positions has invited the wrath of the President of the National Federation of Ordini dei Medici. It is compulsory to be a member of this society if one wishes to practice in Italy. But physicians in Italy are solidly behind him. Their motto "If you ban Cornaglia, ban me"

Virus Watch

Non ABCDEFG: It's been detected in 8 of 102 blood donors in California. In Paris 33 of ]40 patients with liver disease also were found to harbour it. Two per cent of Britain's population, 4-6% of the French and 13% of Japanese are estimated to be carrying it. This is "IT', a new virus named after a Japanese patient in whom it was first identified. After the unseemly hype which surrounded the link between chronic hepatitis and hepatitis virus G which was later found baseless, nobody is hurrying. to bet whether the new virus causes disease or not. but it hasn't stopped anyone from worrying (New Scientist ]2 June 99).

Education

Digital diploma mills: Management guru Peter Drucker's statement that in 30 years, residential universities will be obsolete explains why everybody is scrambling to start their own teaching program from individual courses to overall degree programs in cyberspace. But all may not be hunky dory in online education. A report by the Institute on Higher Educational Policy of the US, states that studies comparing conventional and online education fail to count the higher drop out rate of virtual programs, concentrate on individual courses rather than overall programs, have not validated the instruments they have used to measure efficacy and have not assessed the effectiveness of digital libraries. The unique experience of rubbing shoulders with students from varying cultures and varying interests in an actual university may be difficult to duplicate on the internet. Many like the historian David Noble worry about the commercialization of education by computer vendors with an eye on the big bucks. Other reports caution that online access may be the harbinger of a new apartheid - internet have's and have nots (Scientific American July 99).

Policy

Are ads bad? The electronic version of the British Medical Journal has advertisement of prescription drugs. So far direct advertisement about prescription drugs was banned in Britain, unlike in the US where targeting of the consumer by the pharmaceutical company is blamed for increased use of pharmaceutical products. The Consumer's Association has raised an objection to this since the public has direct access to the BMJ site on the web.

BMJ's editor Richard Smith defends his posi- tion saying that there is a world of a difference between a small notice on the website and a 30 second slot on TV. Further, it's the only way they can manage to keep the eBMJ free (Lancet 19 June 99).

Futuristics

As things stand: Good-bye genomics, proteonomics is here. So far science was busy in unraveling and dissecting the components of the cell and studying it's minuscule fragments. Science had forgotten the wood for the trees. Now the bold new branch of proteonomics tries to envisage the cell in a global sense. How are the various proteins shaped and positioned in relation to each other in the cell? How do they signal to each other and co-ordinate the delicate business of cell metabolism? Comparing proteonomic maps of healthy and diseased cells may unravel many medical secrets. The race to commercialize the techniques is on. At the cutting edge of science the leap from the laboratory to the bedside seems to be quicker every day (Scientific American July 99).
 

Gouri Rao Passi,
Associate Consultant,
Department of Pediatrics,
Choithram Hospital and Research Centre, Indore 452 001, India.
E-mail: [email protected].
 

Pedscapes

Gut - http://www.gutjnl.com.This is the journal of gastroenterology from the High- wire press. This is also a part of the BMJ specialist journals. The full text of this jour- nal, including facility of downloading articles in the pdf format (retaining the format of the printed journal), is available online for a trial period, after which only the abstracts will be accessible for non subscribers.

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine - http://pedsccm.wustl.edu/PedsCCM_home_page.html.  This website on pediatric critical care has been redesigned with many added features. Among the resources in this site are the PICD book (formerly the All-Net textbook), which contains reviews on various topics in critical care, case reports, literature reviews, clinical pathways, and software. In addition there are sections on Evidence-based medicine containing systematic reviews, ongoing clinical trials, Nursing/Advanced Practice Nursing, fellowships and links to critical care resources. This site is one of the most comprehensive sites on Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.

The Vaccine Page - http://vaccines.com . The Vaccine Page features the latest vaccine related news from Reuters and links to information on vaccines and immunization organized for adults, parents, practitioners, researchers, and journalists. A scan of the country section yields journals, institutes and immunization recommendations from sixteen countries.

Pediatric News from Doctor's Guide - http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/paediatricsnews.htm  This site provides weekly news about the recent advances in pediatrics. The news can either be accessed from the site or delivered at your mailbox. Among the other features are a drug index and medical bookstore. This requires a registration, which is free. Among the other features are the new medical sites of the week, new drugs -details of recently approved drugs, medical conferences and CME events and Internet medical resources- a comprehensive database of content-rich medical sites on the web.

RSV Info Center - http://www.rsvinjo.com. As the name suggests, this is a comrpehensive collection of information on respiratory syncitial virus, the commonest causative organism of bronchiolitis. It includes news about latest research, treatment, diagnosis and links to resourcs on RSV and other respiratory infections in pediatrics worldwide. The library contains abstracts of research studies on RSV.

Management of Pediatric HIV Infections - http://www.mcg.edu/Peds/OnL/ForHealthProf/PedAids/INDEX.HTM. This document from the Medical College Georgia, is a manual on the management of mv infections in pediatrics. It includes information on all aspects of Pediatric HIV infections, including prevention and treatment of perinatal infection. This document, though containing mainly textual information, is an exhaustive source for Pediatric HIV.

Pediatric Radiology - http://pediatricradiology.com.  This site is a pediatric radiology and imaging digital library. The collection includes X-rays on various systems, ultra- sounds,. echocardiographs, CT scan's and MR!' s. These images are of good quality and fast to download. A brief description is also given in these images. This site also contains an exhaustive collection of links to resources on pediatric radiology, weekly cases and CME programs.

Congenital and Neonatal Cardiac Defects - http://www.sbu.ac.uk/-dirt/museum/gs-fourth.html. This site hosted by Southbank University from United Kingdom contains a good collection of X-rays, echocardiographs and angiograms on congenital heart disease.

Introduction to Internet for the Pediatrician - http://www.csmc.edu/pediatricslcme/ inetpeds/index.htm. This would be ideal place to start for a pediatrician new to the Internet. It contains in detail the origin of Internet, uses, utility to the pediatrician, and links of use to the pediatrician. This site includes slides containing visuals of various sites and also a step by step guide for accessing the Internet.

House call with Brazelton - http:// www.pampers.com/houscall/index.htm. The development in the first few years of life are covered nicely in this site with the content having been authored by Dr. Brazelton, the author of many books on Developmental Pediatrics. The milestones at various ages are available on entering the age in search boxes. A question and answer page where questions can be posted and replies are received online adds to this site's content.
 

C. Vidyashankar,
Department of Pediatrics,
Base Hospital, Delhi Cantonment, Delhi i 10 010,
india.