Clinical Care Options Announces Addition of ClinicalTrials.gov Database to CCO inPractice™ Point-of-Care Resource

RESTON, Va., Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Clinical Care Options (CCO), a leader in next-generation medical education, information, and publishing for healthcare professionals, today announced the addition of the ClinicalTrials.gov database to CCO inPractice™, a free, searchable online point-of-care CME resource for specialists in HIV and oncology.

CCO inPractice™, which includes its own continuously updated comprehensive textbook, features a sophisticated Web-based specialty-specific search interface that provides simultaneous access to multiple educational resources designed to improve the knowledge and competence of clinicians. This resource includes 106 original textbook chapters written by internationally recognized experts, a comprehensive drug information database, access to a wide variety of current management guidelines, PubMed search and abstract integration, CCO's Conference Coverage of important medical meetings, and customized access to related CME programs produced by CCO, and can be accessed at http://www.inPractice.com.

Participants are also able to claim AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for their searches or for studying individual chapters, bookmark key sections, and share content with colleagues. The ClinicalTrials.gov database is the sixth database to be made available directly from the inPractice platform.

Jeffrey Drezner, MD, CEO of Clinical Care Options, said, "We're excited to add this new database to CCO inPractice™. The adoption of the program around the world has been very gratifying, and we know that this further enhancement, available at the point of care, will be appreciated by the busy practicing clinician."

ClinicalTrials.gov offers timely information on federally and privately supported clinical trials for a wide range of diseases and conditions. ClinicalTrials.gov currently contains 113,224 sponsored trials conducted in all 50 states and in 176 countries.

"Fewer than 3% of cancer patients enter clinical trials in the United States, even though trials are readily available in many parts of the country," said Ramaswamy Govindan, MD, Editor in Chief of CCO inPractice Oncology and Professor of Medicine and Co-Director, Section of Medical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri. "Having reliable and current information about ongoing clinical trials at the tap of a finger is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Integrating this database into inPractice is a great boon for practicing clinicians—it is the best way to integrate today's practice with tomorrow's possibilities."

About CCO inPractice™

CCO inPractice™ was launched in November 2009 to provide the first fully integrated, comprehensive oncology information portal for use at the point of care to provide practical and critical information that physicians and other healthcare professionals would use to support treatment decisions. At the heart of this model is the understanding that the clinician engages in at least 2 distinct types of self-directed learning activities: the quick "look-up" for needed information during the clinic day and the more intensive or in-depth "focused learning" educational experience. The clinician's immediate need for specific information definitively identifies a knowledge or information gap; moreover, having found this specific information, if the physician investigates the topic further through links to reference resources and broader educational programs in a given subject area, this provides further evidence of a self-identified educational gap and a need to address that gap. This continually updated and fully integrated educational platform represents the next transformational step to provide a single educational resource to meet the varying levels of informational needs for clinicians and improve patient care by facilitating the clinician's self-directed learning at the point of care.

About Clinical Care Options

Clinical Care Options, a leader in the development of innovative, interactive, online medical education programs and proprietary medical education technologies for healthcare professionals, creates and publishes original continuing medical education and information resources that are designed specifically for healthcare providers in the areas of HIV, hepatitis/gastroenterology, and hematology/oncology. CCO's educational programs are developed not only to provide the latest scientific information but also to support the understanding, confidence, application, and competence of healthcare professional learners. In addition to the latest point-of-care resource, CCO inPractice™, CCO provides a spectrum of live and online educational programs and formats. For more information about the company and its programs, visit the CCO Web site at clinicaloptions.com.

SOURCE Clinical Care Options