Elsevier, a world leader in health care and medical publishing and online solutions,  announced a strategic relationship between First Consult and Cleveland Clinic to provide physician-author support of content for First Consult, an evidence-based resource integrated into the clinical work flow to deliver trusted medical information at the point-of-care. Through this collaboration, Cleveland Clinic physicians will provide ongoing updates and reviews of First Consult medical topics.

“First Consult’s mission is to provide physicians with evidence-based medical information that is integrated into the clinical workflow, allowing physicians to make better informed decisions at the point-of-care,” said Dr David Goldmann, vice president and editor-in-chief of First Consult.  “Collaborating with Cleveland Clinic on the development of content delivered through First Consult will allow users to obtain input and insight from world-renowned experts in their fields.”

First Consult’s trusted content is enhanced through the direct contribution of medical topics by Cleveland Clinic medical experts into First Consult’s peer-review editorial process. This collaboration expands on an already established relationship between Elsevier and Cleveland Clinic. The Clinic currently provides point-of-care Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit to users of Elsevier’s First Consult and MD Consult, a clinical reference tool utilized by more than 2,000 healthcare organizations and 95 percent of all US medical schools.

“Currently the Cleveland Clinic Centre for Continuing Education awards more than 12,000 CME certificates per month for our web-based educational programs. As one of the nation's leading academic CME providers, we are delighted with our growing partnership with Elsevier,” said Dr William Carey, Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, and director, Centre for Continuing Education, Cleveland Clinic. “The First Consult-Cleveland Clinic collaboration matches the robust clinical expertise of our faculty with the peerless production, distribution and marketing capabilities of Elsevier. Healthcare providers will be the major beneficiary of this partnership.”

As physicians increasingly turn to the Internet for clinical information, the relationship between Elsevier and Cleveland Clinic helps ensure that the information they receive is current, relevant and accurate, thus improving overall patient care. Eighty-six percent of US physicians now use the Internet to gather health, medical or prescription drug information, according to a November 2009 survey commissioned by Google.

A 2009 Manhattan Research survey put the number at 89 percent, and one-third of physicians have claimed that they changed a patient’s treatment as the result of an Internet search.  Instead of relying on the unproven information available widely on the Internet, Elsevier sees physicians gravitating more to the evidence-based clinical content provided by online tools such as First Consult.

For clinician use at the point-of-care, First Consult is the ideal resource for quickly answering questions related to screening, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the majority of the medical conditions responsible for office visits and inpatient admissions.

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services.

Cleveland Clinic, is a not-for-profit multi-specialty academic medical centre that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education.