Press Release 05-206 Web Tool May Help Doctors Make Better Decisions
Online medical database helps physicians answer clinical questions
December 6, 2005
According to a new study in the Nov.-Dec. issue of Annals of Family Medicine, primary care physicians were able to answer more clinical questions when they used a new online resource, the Dynamic Medical Information System, or DynaMed, than if they relied solely upon other resources.
Developed with the support of a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research award, DynaMed is a collection of clinical summaries on more than 1,800 medical topics. Instead of relying solely on texts in the office or other resources, a doctor can log into DynaMed to compare his patients' ailments with a peer-reviewed, searchable database.
In the recent study, many doctors using the tool changed clinical decisions based on evidence they uncovered in the database.
DynaMed is supported by NSF's SBIR program, which emphasizes high-risk, high-payback innovations that are tied to NSF's mission of advancements in science, engineering and education. All proposals are evaluated on the technical merit of their research and development, as well as their technological impact. NSF was the first of 10 federal agencies to reserve a portion of their research and development funds for the SBIR program, which is coordinated by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Joshua A. Chamot, NSF (703) 292-7730 jchamot@nsf.gov
Program Contacts
Juan E. Figueroa, NSF (703) 292-7054 jfiguero@nsf.gov
Principal Investigators
Brian S. Alper, DynaMed (978) 356-6500 BAlper@epnet.com
Related Websites Annals of Family Medicine paper by Alper et al.: http://www.annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/3/6/507
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