Premier Online Clinical Knowledge System, MD Consult, Goes Mobile

Physicians Can Now Receive Drug Updates, Latest Journal Abstracts, Check Their Electronic Handbooks and Search MD Consult - All From Their Handheld Devices

ST LOUIS, and PHILADELPHIA, June 2, 2003 -- MD Consult, the leading online clinical knowledge system, now has a mobile computing option, MDC Mobile(TM), for its 285,000 paid users at more than 1,700 health care institutions around the world.

MDC Mobile(TM), which is included at no charge as part of the MD Consult service, provides medical professionals with a complete clinical handheld home, offering users:

* The ability to record, store and initiate searches on MD Consult, right from a Palm OS or Pocket PC handheld device

* Daily feeds of medical news

* Weekly drug updates

* Access to the latest abstracts from hundreds of medical journals via the "Mobile Library" function, the ability to access and use other separately purchased handheld/PDA clinical reference products from the Elsevier family, including the Harriet Lane Handbook and the new Osler Medical Handbook.

Elsevier, the medical information provider behind MD Consult and many other best-in-class electronic information services such as Cardiosource, PDxMD and Science Direct, built MDC Mobile as a flexible mobile clinical information platform for physicians -- combining some of the best features and benefits of MD Consult with the functionality of freestanding handheld products. Elsevier plans on using extensive and integrated mobile computing options as part of its offerings for both clinical referencing and point-of-care decision support.

"With MDC Mobile, Elsevier is closer to realizing its vision of an integrated electronic information service offering a full range of clinical information products designed to meet the needs of physicians," said Mitchell Lapides, executive vice president, Electronic Products Group for Elsevier's Health Science Division. "It is our intent to provide a definitive 'handheld home' for physicians, giving them not only with the features and information they require today, but also building with them over time as those requirements evolve."

About MD Consult

MD Consult is a leading source of clinical information within the medical community, helping physicians answer clinical questions and stay abreast of recent developments online. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, MD Consult is a part of world-leading health science publisher, Elsevier.

The MD Consult Clinical Knowledge System offers an integrated family of online medical information services, which may be used stand-alone or in combination with each other. Its flagship service, MD Consult Core Collection, was introduced in 1997 and is accessed today by more than 285,000 health professionals under paid subscription plans at more than 1,700 institutions, including more than 90% of American medical schools.

MD Consult also offers specialty-focused editions including: MD Consult Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, MD Consult Infectious Disease, and MD Consult Pain Medicine. All services deliver single point, integrated access to trusted medical content including: leading reference books, full-text articles from influential medical journals, MEDLINE and other databases, peer-reviewed clinical practice guidelines, a comprehensive drug database, customizable patient education handouts, continuing medical education materials, and a suite of features which identify and report on current developments in medicine. An extensive range of add-on clinical reference collections allow customers to enhance the depth of the service within an expanding range of specialty fields, presently including: Pediatrics, OBGYN, Emergency Medicine, Dentistry and Surgery.

Physicians or organizations can preview services and register for a free trial at http://www.mdconsult.com , or call 1-800-401-9962 for more information.

About Elsevier

Elsevier ( http://www.elsevier.com ), the Science, Technology and Medicine group of global media giant Reed-Elsevier, is the world's largest scientific, technical and medical information provider that publishes more than 1,600 journals, 1,200 books, as well as secondary databases. Elsevier key brands include: PDxMD; MDConsult; Cardiosource; Academic Press; Butterworth-Heinemann; Cell Press; Churchill-Livingstone; Engineering Information; Excerpta Medica; The Lancet; MDL; Mosby; North-Holland; Pergamon; ScienceDirect and WB Saunders.

For further information please contact: Rum Ekhtiar, Ext. 154, rum@fischerhealth.com , or Cathy DiRamio, Ext. 129, cdiramio@fischerhealth.com , both for Elsevier/MD Consult, +1-310-577-7970.

SOURCE Elsevier/MD Consult
Web Site: http://www.elsevier.com