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March 1997
Volume 61 |
Number 3
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| Getting Your 'Webbed'
Feet Wet: Welcome to ASA's Web Site |
Jill M. Sidoti
ASA Assistant Systems Manager
On May 1, 1996, ASA's World Wide Web site physically migrated
to the ASA Executive Office at <http://www.asahq.org>
after being nurtured for a year under the protective wing of Stanley
W. Stead, M.D., at the University of California-Los Angeles School
of Medicine. Conceived as a way to provide information to both
the general public and medical professionals, the ASA Web site
has grown from a few basic pages to an extensive, ever increasing
repository of information available to anyone - worldwide.
With more and more people using the Internet as a means of information
exchange, the Committee on Electronic Media and Information Technology
(EMIT) decided to use this electronic forum to aid the Society
in reaching its goals of raising and maintaining the standards
of the medical practice of anesthesiology and improving the care
of the patient.
Site Content
The site itself is divided into two main sections: public education
and physician information. Items aimed at the general public include
information about the practice
of anesthesiology and about
ASA. We have also provided the complete text of ASA's patient
education brochures, including "Know
Your Anesthesiologist," "Planning
Your Childbirth" and "The
Management of Pain."
The physician information area has grown almost daily since the
site's inception. It began with the contents of many of ASA's
physician booklets, plus the ASA Standards, Guidelines and Statements
and a listing of the component
societies. Since May 1996, each issue of the ASA
NEWSLETTER, including this one, has been published online
in its entirety. Most have been uploaded to the Web site in advance
of the printed publication coming off the press.
Up-to-date meeting information is continually added, including
descriptions of ASA Regional Refresher Courses and Workshops with
a downloadable registration form and complete ASA Annual
Meeting information. The full text of the "Calendars
for Meetings" booklet with its one-year, five-year and international
calendars of anesthesia-related meetings is also available online.
Information about contacts for the Substance
Abuse Hotline and occupational
health and safety issues has been posted. Digitally scanned
photographs of ASA's officers with their profiles and e-mail links
are available, as is a complete listing of all ASA committees,
their chairs and members.
ASA Hosts Other Web Sites
In addition, ASA now hosts Web sites for several related organizations,
including the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology (WLM) <http://www.asahq.org/wlm/homepage.html>,
the ASA Resident Component <http://www.asahq.org/asarc/homepage.html>
and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER).
The WLM and Resident Component sites are maintained by Jeffrey
M. Cusick, M.D. <jeff@cusick.com>,
and the FAER site is maintained by ASA headquarters staff. There
is also a complete listing of component
societies, including links to their Web sites, where available.
Other current items of interest to medical professionals are
a page with general
anesthesia links and one with links to hospital and university
departments of anesthesiology . Finally, the Web site provides
direct e-mail links to key departments in the ASA Executive Office
in Park Ridge, Illinois <mail@ASAhq.org>
and the ASA Washington Office <mail@ASAwash.org>.
Future Plans
The EMIT Committee, together with ASA staff, is already in the
process of developing several future enhancements to the ASA Web
site. Full text of 1997 accepted scientific papers, when provided
electronically by the authors, will be available on Lippincott-Raven's
Web site (with a link from ASA's site) well in advance of the
1997 ASA Annual Meeting. EMIT has been exploring options for making
surveys available on the Web site in an effort to reduce mailing
costs and make it more convenient for members to communicate directly
with ASA.
Other developments further down the road include a searchable
index of all ASA NEWSLETTER issues back to 1989, with links
where available, posting some form of membership directory with
appropriate security features, making available the WLM's virtual
tour, which debuted at the 1996 ASA Annual Meeting in New Orleans,
Louisiana, and adding placement listings to the ASA site.
We Need Your Help
Yet with all the development that has gone on during the last
year, the EMIT Committee is still in need of your feedback. Is
there something in particular that you would like to see added
to ASA's Web site? Are there ways in which the site could be of
more use to you in your practice? Are there links to other anesthesia-related
sites that should be added? This is your Web site; please help
us to make it better!
You may contact the EMIT Committee Chair, N. Ty Smith, M.D.,
through the American Society of Anesthesiologists, 520 N. Northwest
Highway, Park Ridge, IL 60068, telephone: (847) 825-5586; or by
e-mail: <tsmith@ucsd.edu>
or send a note to the ASA's Webmaster <j.sidoti@ASAhq.org>.
Of course, no article about the Web would be complete without
a brief explanation of how to find us. If you are just getting
started, here are the basic items you will need:
- Personal computer
- Modem
- Internet account, either with a commercial service such as
America Online or CompuServe, or with a local Internet service
provider (ISP).
- World Wide Web browser such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft
Internet Explorer or Mosaic.
If you are already connected to the Internet via your hospital,
university or personal home computer, just type the following
Web address, also called the universal resource locator, or URL,
into your browser and visit ASA's Web site: <http://www.asahq.org>
(omit the < >). And remember, we need your input to make
the Web site work better for you!
Jill M. Sidoti is Assistant Systems Manager
at the ASA Executive Office in Park Ridge, Illinois. She serves
as "Webmaster" for the ASA's Web site
E-mail the author..
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