SCCM Pediatric Section Internet Working Group (SCCMPIWG)

Meeting Minutes September 1998

• Call to order, welcome.
  • The meeting, co-chaired by Barry Markovitz and Carl Weigle (in absentia), was called to order at 12:15 pm.
  • The 17 people present introduced themselves. Twelve individuals were new to the group.
  • Attendees were reminded that
    1. SCCMPIWG welcomes any interested parties, and
    2. this group constitutes, in effect, the editorial board and advisory committee of the PedsCCM website.
• Minutes of the previous meeting
  • Previous meeting minutes have been available on the WWW, and any comments/corrections received have been incorporated prior to this meeting. The minutes are therefore considered approved by the membership.
• PICU List
  • Subscribership is now over 2000. Detailed statistics about subscriber growth and message volume was circulated.
  • A special guest was Dr. Manuel Lorente, from Spain, who maintains the UCIP-L, a Spanish-language "sister list".
• PedsCCM Web site
  • Overview: Barry distributed a detailed analysis of PedsCCM use over the past 6 months. In brief:
    • There were over 195,000 "hits" by 34,171 unique "hosts." Over 6.2 gigabytes of data was sent during this period.
    • The most frequently accessed pages were the main pages of PedsCCM and All-Net, the File Cabinet index, and the PICU list jobs page.
    • The most downloaded documents were components of the Akron Resident's Manual, with the "Oxygenation and Oxygen Therapy" chapter being requested 620 times.
    • During August, individual access was noted from at least 55 different countries
  • Resources included in PedsCCM were reviewed briefly. Discussion focused on:
    • Methods to increase submissions of original content/issues of academic credit
      • The perceived lack of academic recognition for submitting material to "just a website" continues to hamper efforts to build original content. With the increasing recognition of the importance of the Internet as a valuable tool for biomedicine, it is hoped that this perception will fade, and there is some evidence that this is already happening. Numerous calls for guidelines to evaluate medical websites and operating principles to ensure quality, clear statements of financial support, etc., already appear to be having an impact
      • PedsCCM has consistently adhered to the following: clear statement of ownership and affiliations, recognition of financial support, dating and signing of all contributions, and peer review.
      • Joe DiCarlo and Susan Day have been vigorous in direct requests to individuals for content submission to All-Net, and continue to seek educational materials that many people have already created for local "consumption," e.g., a slide presentation.
      • Because PedsCCM and All-Net are peer-reviewed resources, authors can and should claim appropriate academic credit for their published works in this medium.
      • The idea of offering honoraria, perhaps supported by selective and discrete advertisements or acceptance of industry support, was raised. We will discuss this further via email.
      • The suggestion was raised that we offer CME credit on PedsCCM. Dr. Tegtmeyer may be pursuing this in the near future for the educational resources developed at his institution. We will await information from him on this notion and consider it further.
    • Data collection on unusual events via the website
      • Although intriguing in principle, some problems are evident with this approach. e.g., the lack of a "denominator" in collecting drug reactions. It was suggested that PedsCCM work with existing entities, such as the Food and Drug Administration as we did with the issue of pulmonary hemorrhage in infancy.
• The Virtual PICU
  • A summary of the Virtual PICU project and it's relation now and in the future to PedsCCM, All-Net, and the PICU list was discussed. Ultimately, the VPICU may incorporate our existing Internet resources and create a truly comprehensive presence.
• Adjournment
  • The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 pm

Posted 9/21/98 by Barry Markovitz

In attendance:

• Barry Markovitz
• Ken Tegtmeyer
• Dave Bigos
• Kevin Bork
• Judy Verger
• Michael Verive
• Jim Jose
• Susan Day
• Stan Bonis
• Brahm Goldstein
• Jose Rodriquez-Santana
• Bassel Salman
• Ahmed Al Nakhli
• Manuel Lorente
• George Reynolds
• Philip Bernard
• Dave McKinley

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