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Press Release

Cambridge Centre for Clinical Informatics and Intelligent Medical Objects Announce Electronic Publishing Initiative

08/30/1998

IMO to release HIV book in next-generation electronic publication

Chicago, Illinois - (April 30, 1998) - The Cambridge, UK Centre for Clinical Informatics (CCI) and Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO) of Chicago, Illinois today announce the success of their collaboration to bring cutting-edge on-line electronic publishing technology into the medical marketplace. IMO is currently introducing The HIV Manual as the first book produced using the jointly developed I-Wax electronic publishing tools. The I-Wax products support complex medical knowledge development through built-in conceptual search and customization functionality.

"I-Wax is perfectly suited for distribution of health-related information," says Andrew Kanter, physician and Chief Operating Officer for IMO. "Medical information, particularly in the HIV field, changes rapidly and we have built The HIV Manual to provide up-to-date medical knowledge at a click of the mouse."

IMO worked with CCI and the University of Cambridge to enhance Wax, a multimedia software application used by the National Health System of the United Kingdom to distribute medical reference materials to physicians. This product has evolved into I-Wax-which now represents a new generation in electronic publishing technology. I-Wax combines the best in web-enabled, multimedia browsers with the security of authorship authentication. The I-Wax browser is a stand-alone application that can be distributed over the Internet, along with any electronic books published through this technology.

IMO received an exclusive license from CCI to distribute I-Wax books in the United States. IMO has licensed medical content for The HIV Manual, edited by Drs. David Spach and Thomas Hooton from Oxford University Press, and additional books are planned for the future. Primarily designed for clinicians, the manual will be updated regularly and distributed over the Internet. The next IMO I-Wax book, The HIV Glossary, will be available in June and will be directed towards people living with HIV/AIDS, their families and friends.

"Medicine contains complex subject matter that requires significant indexing and manipulation," says Kanter. "To address, physician and researcher information needs I-Wax books have the built-in ability to locate individual paragraphs of text by identifying concepts, rather than by simple text searching. This allows users to search for terms not included in the text of the book, yet conceptually linked to content."

For example, searching for "TX PCP" in The HIV Manual finds all available information dealing with the treatment of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia-even though these specific words are not used in the search. As part of its enhanced functionality, searching in I-Wax takes advantage of common clinical vocabulary and medical abbreviations. Users can build individualized books by combining sections of text drawn from anywhere within a single I-Wax book or the entire I-Wax library.

"As well as appealing to health care consumers, I-Wax technology is attractive to publishers wanting to develop their on-line channels," says Lauren Enck, Medical Editor for Oxford University Press, NY. "I-Wax demonstrates many of the critical functions we seek out for electronic products. What has been done with The HIV Manual text is really spectacular and will offer something unique to the end user."

Dr. Kanter added, "I-Wax may be the first prototype of a secure, web-based electronic publication. For on-line book distributors this product would represent an effective methodology to sell, securely distribute, index and provide ongoing access to books over the Internet."

I-Wax books incorporate sophisticated authentication routines designed by the University of Cambridge and cannot be opened if they have been modified in any way since authorship-ensuring that unmodified information reaches the user as it was intended. "In mission-critical operations like the delivery of medical care, a change in a single digit or character in the author's text can be very important," said Rudolf Hanka, Director of CCI. "The I-Wax browser can identify the smallest change in a book. The difference between 50 mg and 500 mg of a recommended drug could mean life or death for a patient."

"We believe that collaboration between physicians, medical publishers and computer scientists is the best way to design information delivery systems to enhance health care delivery and improve the lives of patients and providers," said Frank Naeymi-Rad, President of IMO. "IMO is pleased to be a partner in this important endeavor." "We have developed technology that adapts to the ways people search for medical information," says Naeymi-Rad, "Now we are ready to collaborate with more publishers in the areas of science and medicine-although our technology is appropriate to many academic pursuits."