Johns Hopkins Launches Program to Help Medical Societies Use Web Effectively

Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with about a dozen medical societies, this week launched a project designed to help the societies use the Internet more effectively, the Baltimore Sun reports. The MedBiquitous Consortium will "commission software and develop common standards" that the medical groups can use to offer continuing education and testing, collect outcomes data and publish online academic journals. The group will rely on technical expertise from IBM Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Rational Software Corp. Dr. Peter Greene, associate dean for emerging technologies at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and executive director of the consortium, said the collaboration will allow the medical societies to develop better online tools than they could separately. Greene added that establishing common standards will "allow easy exchange of information." The consortium will have a first-year budget of $2.5 million, derived mainly from membership fees paid by the societies. Greene said that "broad adoption" of the new tools could take "a few years" because consortium members will need to agree upon the standards and software must be developed (Salganik, Baltimore Sun, 5/23).