Elsevier Provides Free Clinical Reference Support for Japan Earthquake Relief Efforts

TOKYO, March 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

- New Radiation Sickness Resource Pages Added to MD Consult and First Consult; Company Participating in National Library of Medicine Emergency Access Initiative

Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/), a world leader in health care and medical publishing and online solutions, today announced that following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, the company is providing free access to its primary online clinical reference tools - MD Consult and First Consult - to all IPs originating from Japan. Free access will be available through April, 2011. This effort is part of a new initiative to provide easily accessible focused resources in response to world events that present difficult medical challenges.

MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/) is an authoritative combination of clinically relevant information to give medical professionals an answer to their clinical questions, stay abreast of recent developments, and educate patients, resulting in better patient care and improved outcomes. First Consult (http://www.firstconsult.com/) is Elsevier's point-of-care content that is integrated within MD Consult and leverages evidence-based medical information to deliver answers that are trusted, quick, and accessible.

MD Consult has also added a recommended resource topic page for Radiation Sickness (http://www.mdconsult.com/recommended-results/RADIATIONSICKNESS.lp), which is linked from http://www.mdconsult.com.

If access to a desktop computer is problematic, MD Consult has a mobile version, and First Consult has an iPhone/iPad app ( http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/first-consult/id399677784?mt=8) that provides offline access to First Consult's content in areas that have limited or no internet connectivity.

Emergency Access Initiative

Elsevier is also providing free online access to medical information for healthcare professionals in Japan through the Emergency Access Initiative (EAI) (http://eai.nlm.nih.gov/docs/captcha/test.pl?url=), 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.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com) and Cell (http://www.cell.com), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com), SciVerse Scopus (http://www.scopus.com), Reaxys (http://www.reaxys.com), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com) and Nursing Consult (http://www.nursingconsult.com ), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (http://www.scival.com) and MEDai's Pinpoint Review (http://www.medai.com), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier ( http://www.elsevier.com) employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (http://www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

    Media Contact
    Tom Reller
    Vice President, Global Corporate Relations
    Elsevier
    +1-215-239-3508
    [email protected]

SOURCE Elsevier