I was wondering why there is no newsgroup for anesthesiology/anaesthesia.
As an international group we are a large proportion of medical personel, in a
fairly *high-tec* specialty, with a high proportion of computer literates
amongst us in a rapidly changing field. We are also in a field where many
would agree there is often an information gap between our patients and
ourselves and an open discussion of anesthetic matters could help dispell
some myths (like:
Oh, your the one who gives me pentothal then goes out for coffee....)

If there is a newsgroup or mailing list that I am not aware of, could
someone enlighten me. I am also interested in getting some sort of
internet access or
information service underway for the World Congress of Anesthesiologists
in Sydney in April 1996.

I am interested in any thoughts on any of these matters.

Sweet Dreams....
Mike

--
Michael Beaudoin

Sydney, Australia

(From _Canadian Medical Informatics_ 2:54, 1995)

_Towards Information Philantropy in Medicine_ by D.John Doyle, MD, PhD,
FRCPC

As we all know from experience, learning new subject matter is often
facilitated by having at hand materials such as summary notes and
diagrams.
The traditional source for this information is textbooks and
magazine/journal articles, these almost always having the usual
copyright
limiting redistribution without prior commercial arrangements with the
copyright owner (usually a publishing house).

However we are now experiencing a shift in thinking about information
distribution.  Efforts accross the worlds are now making available
enormous
amounts of freely available information as electronic files dispersed
across the Internet and easily accessed by Gopher, Mosaic (Netscape),
ftp
(file transfer protocol) or by other means.  In many cases, the material
in
the files is in the public domain, meaning that they may be freely
distributed without specific permission.  Project Gutenburg, for
example,
is a collection of public domain books (Plato's Republic, etc) whose
copyrights have all lapsed (usually 50 years after the author's death).
Many US government documents such as clinical guidelines are also in the
public domain.

Recently, new clinical information services have become available which
allow free distribution of theri material, while still retaining any
copyrights, a practice sometimes known as "copyleft".  The arrangement
in
this setting usually requires that the material be distributed
unaltered,
with editorial and authorsip credits intact.  For example in April 1994,
I
launched a "copyleft" monthly Electronic Journal called "Educational
Synopses in Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine"
<gopher://gasnet.med.nyu.edu/> which is distributed worldwide by
listserver
and gopher (by Gasnet,the New York Anesthesiology System).  More
recently,
I started the Medical Airway Gopher for clinicians interested in airway
management <gopher://medairway.org/>.  Similarly, in the world wide
high-energy physics field this "copyleft" cort of thing has been going
on
for many years, mostly with "preprint" papers.  Unfortunately, it has
been
somewhat slower to come to medicine.

It is time to recognize the new shift in thinking about intellectual
property ownership towards increased information philantropy.  We will
all
benefit from this new source of intellectual wealth.

D.John Doyle, MD, PhD, FRCPC

'--> necessary disclaimer

   Al Willis    :-)