Online link to antibiotic information will help research use

Johns Hopkins is studying prescribing practices in an attempt to combat overuse and misuse.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. May 14, 2001.

Johns Hopkins University is giving physicians free access to electronic information on the proper use of antibiotics. It's also researching prescribing practices to tackle the growing concern over drug-resistant bacteria.

In April, the academic medical center put its peer-reviewed database on the Internet, enabling physicians to access up-to-date guidelines and other information on more than 160 antibiotics and 140 diseases.

Doctors also can download a version of the database for handheld devices. The Web site offers physicians larger amounts of information while the handheld version is "designed to give very, very up-to-date information that is distilled down to give physicians quick reference as they make decisions at the point of care," said Sharon McAvinue, director of Point of Care Information Technology.

POC-IT is a new Johns Hopkins program that plans to offer a series of digital medical guides about infectious diseases that physicians can use at the point of care. The antibiotics database, called the ABX Guide, is the first in the series.

To access the database, physicians must first register online. When physicians search the Web site version, Johns Hopkins will gather and analyze anonymous data about what they saw.

At this time, Johns Hopkins won't monitor physicians using handheld devices, but may do so in the future, said Walter Atha, MD, director of the ABX Guide and an emergency physician at Johns Hopkins.

When physicians register, they will be asked to provide general demographic information that will enable Johns Hopkins to analyze prescribing practices on an aggregate level by region or specialty, among other things. [...]