May 8th, 2009
New England Journal of Medicine fights flu panic
As the initial fear of H1N1 flu subsides, Internet resources are becoming key to both moderating the panic and maintaining a mounting concern.
The New England Journal of Medicine deserves special mention here. While frequently criticized for hiding articles behind firewalls to protect its business model, this flu has the Journal creating a special page linking every new article it gets on the subject, full-text.
What this means is that doctors and reporters can stay abreast of the latest research in the field as it is approved for use by the Journal’s editors.
As of today the U.S. has more cases, 1,639, of this influenza strain than Mexico, which has 1,364. The death count, however, has reached 45 there and still stands at 1 here.
Studies of past pandemics indicates why concern is still warranted, and why vaccines are already being developed. Flu outbreaks often happen in waves, with the risk of young, healthy people dieing from the disease rising in later waves.
One reason for the disparity might be because the new flu is displaying differently than common influenza. The Journal is now tracking when it started (in the 1990s) and when it began spreading (2005).
Not only has the Journal accepted the need for more services in front of its firewall with this pandemic, but other online monitoring tools are also now widespread. These may be the kindest words about the online world yet produced by the NEJM so savor them:
Though traditional official and media communication channels remain in place, Web-based mapping, search-term surveillance, “microblogging,” and online social networks have emerged as alternative forms of rapid dissemination of information.
The silver lining in this pandemic may be the emergence of a real alliance between old school journal-based medical publishing and the online world.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 05/08/09
