In response to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, Elsevier has offered free access to its primary online clinical reference tools to all IPs originating from that country.
Elsevier is also providing free online access to medical information for healthcare professionals in Japan through the Emergency Access Initiative (EAI), a partnership of the National Library of Medicine and the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers and other publishers.
EAI provides temporary free access to full-text articles from major biomedicine titles to healthcare professionals, librarians and the public affected by disasters. The idea for EAI was proposed in the aftermath of 9/11, but its first real use was in response to last year's earthquake in Haiti.
[See also: Telemedicine 'holds promise' for patients after major disaster.]
Elsevier officials said the effort is part of a new initiative to provide easily accessible focused resources in response to world events that present difficult medical challenges.
The company is offering free access to MD Consult, which provides access to clinical resources like medical journals and drug information and First Consult, a Web-based clinical decision support resource, through the month of April.
MD Consult has also added a recommended resource topic page for radiation sickness, which includes articles on signs and symptoms as well as treatment and management and other resources to help keep clinicians informed.
[See also: Disaster in Japan causes spike in social media use.]
Officials recommend that because there may be limited access to a desktop computer, clinicians use the mobile version of MD Consult. First Consult also has an iPhone/iPad app that provides offline access to First Consult's content in areas that have limited or no internet connectivity.
