ExtraMED joins the free health information initiative: Reducing the health information gap between rich and poor countries PRESS RELEASE: London, 23 July 2001 Informania Ltd, the world's largest electronic publisher of biomedical journals from the Third World, announced that it would provide the ExtraMED full-text database to developing country users for free or at very low cost, under the same terms as those announced last week by six leading medical publishers. It would also enable the distribution of this information through a new network of health information resource centres. The announcement was made at a global videoconference on Universal Access to Health Information staged at the British Medical Association in London, chaired by Richard Smith, Editor of the British Medical Journal, and with live links to development professionals throughout the world. Describing the announcement, Chris Zielinski, Chief Executive of Informania Ltd., said, "For all the perceived evils of globalization, the global spread of valid health information can be an unalloyed good, and I commend the initiative of WHO and the commercial publishers." However, he warned, "If all this information comes from the industrialized countries alone, and none of it is local, it could end up being seen as a form of information colonisation." The provision of ExtraMED - which has exclusive electronic rights to over 300 of the leading biomedical journals published in developing countries, and has been issuing them on monthly CD-ROMs over the last few years - would help to balance the equation. "It is crucial that information from the South is included in this worthy initiative, as an act of validation and in pursuit of information equity," Zielinski said. Informania Ltd aimed to develop the distribution mechanism for ExtraMED in association with a well-known publisher, to coincide with the launch of the major medical publishers' scheme in early 2002. He offered the use of the recently established Information Waystations and Staging Posts Network (www.iwsp.org) to distribute the publishers' offline material, as it already links the largest collection of health information centres in the developing world, and is set to expand rapidly. Zielinski also called upon other electronic publishers of developing country content to join the initiative. "We could have a comprehensive offering, amounting to an alternative MEDLINE - providing the full text of all the leading developing country journals from a single source." CONTACT: Chris Zielinski, Chief Executive, Informania Limited, P.O. Box 40, Petersfield, Hants GU32 2YH, UK Tel: +44-(0)1730-301297 Fax: 0044-1730-265398 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ BACKGROUND: ExtraMED publishes the full text of 316 Third World biomedical journals as page images (print-outs look like photocopies of the actual journal pages). Some 30,000 articles, comprising 250,000 pages, had been included in ExtraMED by July 2000. Taking its name from the fact that it comprises journals that are 'extra' to the MEDLINE database, ExtraMED focuses on journals that are largely excluded from the international indexes. The journals were originally selected through the World Health Organization's regional Index Medicus projects. It is by far the largest full-text source of such literature. The journals benefit from wider exposure and a share of any income generated. ExtraMED was started by Chris Zielinski in 1994 while he was a Director of Health and Biomedical Information at the World Health Organization. Chris continued the project within his family company, Informania Ltd. Information about the Information Waystations and Staging Posts Network is available at www.iwsp.org. On 9 July 2001, six of the world's leading medical publishers (Blackwell Science, Elsevier Science, Harcourt International, John Wiley, Springer Verlag, and Wolters Kluwer) joined forces with WHO in a unique venture in which they have put profits aside to enable more than 100 of the poorest countries in the world to access vital scientific information free of charge through the Internet. ------------ ***GKD is an initiative of the Global Knowledge Partnership*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.globalknowledge.org>
