BMJ Group (BMJ), a respected global provider of evidence-based clinical resources and publisher of the British Medical Journal, today announced that it has partnered with Epocrates, Inc, a recognized U.S. leader in clinical information and mobile healthcare technology, to introduce an innovative online clinical resource called BMJ Point of Care. Designed from the ground up with point-of-care needs in mind, this product features original, peer-reviewed disease diagnosis and treatment content authored by physician experts in collaboration with the BMJ Group. In addition, the product’s new disease content seamlessly integrates with Epocrates’ extensive drug database. Click here to see today’s related Epocrates/BMJ partnership announcement.

BMJ’s new product is designed for institutions, including hospitals, hospital systems, and medical and academic libraries in North America.

When faced with urgent patient care questions, healthcare professionals today are turning to a variety of online sources for answers, with varying degrees of success. Current point-of-care references are not designed to quickly and effectively deliver the specific types of information that busy clinicians are most often seeking, such as information on symptoms, differential diagnoses, diagnostic tests, treatment options and drug dosing plus side effects and interactions.

“Unlike other point-of-care products on the market today, BMJ Point of Care is specifically designed to deliver credible information that is immediately actionable, not only answering physicians’ questions quickly but also giving them the flexibility to drill down further if required or desired,” says Dr. Sheila Feit, Deputy Editor of BMJ Point of Care. “Every product development decision we make is designed to help healthcare professionals easily access information and expand their professional knowledge.”

To effectively address these information needs, this partnership combines trusted, authoritative, and in-depth clinical content with superior product technology. BMJ Point of Care effectively meets the challenging information demands of today’s fast-paced clinical care setting, including:

• comprehensive disease monographs that provide condition overviews and symptom evaluations, treatment approaches, information on which tests to order, society medical guidelines and more. These monographs contain clear, concise expert opinion plus embedded links to the best available medical evidence from BMJ Clinical Evidence.*

• critical prescribing information for more than 3,300 drugs and 400 alternative medicines, including dosing and interactions, as well as health plan coverage.

• valuable clinical tools, allowing physicians and other healthcare professionals to check interactions for up to 50 drugs at a time, plus access hundreds of medical equations, calculators and tables.

• intuitive information design, encouraging clinicians to quickly scan and delve deeper into key highlights of interest when necessary, and jump back and forth between different aspects of each topic.

Availability

BMJ Point of Care is available today for subscription by institutions in North America only, including hospitals and hospital systems plus medical and academic libraries. The international version of this product will be available in 2009. For North America subscription information, please call 1-866-577-0265 or email productinfo.usa@bmjgroup.com.

About BMJ

BMJ Group (www.group.bmj.com) is one of the world leaders in medical publishing. The Group publishes the BMJ (British Medical Journal), leading journals covering major medical specialties, BMJ Clinical Evidence, as well as several other evidence-based resources. The mission of the Group is to publish intellectually sound material that will serve the needs of doctors, other healthcare professionals, the scientific community, and the public.

Contact:

Trish Joyce
BMJ Group
tjoyce@bmjgroup.com
303-771-5159

or

Amelie Johnson (for BMJ Group)
George Cohen Communications
agjpr@comcast.net
617-335-1521