Yale Helps Create Online Database For Nurses Worldwide--"SKOLAR-RN" Will Focus on Bedside Care

Yale University is joining with a Stanford University start up company, SKOLAR, in creating an Internet database and search system that will enable nurses across the globe to get instant expert information on patient care.

Yale University is joining with a Stanford University start up company, SKOLAR, in creating an Internet database and search system that will enable nurses across the globe to get instant expert information on patient care.

The new venture, SKOLAR, RN is modeled after Stanford’s first branded Internet spin-off, SKOLAR, MD. The partnership with Yale and SKOLAR will be launched at a news conference at noon September 26 at The Quinnipiack Club. A luncheon will follow immediately after the news conference.

SKOLAR, MD allows physicians to perform rapid searches across multiple medical references including professional journals, textbooks, clinical practice guidelines, and drug databases. Primary care doctors are able to obtain reliable, up-to-the-minute diagnostic and other information about any medical condition while at the patient’s side.

The Yale School of Nursing will oversee the content for SKOLAR, RN, which will enable nurses to access information about state-of-the-art nursing practice much the way physicians obtain relevant information from SKOLAR, MD.

“Yale is committed to developing the potential of the Web for lifelong professional education,” Yale President Richard C. Levin said at today’s event. “We are delighted to join with SKOLAR in this effort to improve the quality of patient care.”

“A critical part of SKOLAR’s mission is to use the Web to help the healthcare system by empowering healthcare professionals,” said Paul Lippe, CEO of SKOLAR. “I am thrilled that this joint enterprise will be bringing together Yale and SKOLAR to improve healthcare and explore best uses of the Internet.”

Eugene Bauer, MD, Vice President for Stanford University Medical Center and Dean of Stanford’s School of Medicine, says that SKOLAR, RN combines technology and medical information in ways that will bring important innovations to the nation’s healthcare system. “SKOLAR, RN will be a valuable tool because it combines the immediacy and reach of the Internet with the depth of content and commitment to quality that Yale and SKOLAR bring to the venture.”

Nurses who subscribe to SKOLAR, RN will access critical information by entering simple language queries. For example, a nurse would type in a word such as “diabetes” and the system would feed back information from multiple references. Nurses also will be able to use the system’s integrated search and learning platform to gain continuing education credits.

Agilent Technologies of Palo Alto will be an early private-sector adopter of the SKOLAR, RN knowledge platform. The company’s Healthcare Solutions Group will integrate SKOLAR, RN into its family of Web-enabled patient monitoring devices.

“SKOLAR, RN will make available at the click of a mouse a world of knowledge that will address clinical questions that nurses confront on a daily basis, often at the bedside of patients,” said John Fanton, eBusiness manager for Agilent’s Healthcare Solutions Group. “These services, used in conjunction with our smart devices, are helping the healthcare system by making professionals smarter, more up-to-date, and in this way, more capable.”

Catherine Gilliss, Dean of the Yale School of Nursing, added, “We can strengthen the nursing profession by creating superior online knowledge resources for nurses that parallel the type of resources that SKOLAR has already created for physicians. Nurses are increasinglycritical to healthcare. We want to empower them with knowledge in the clinical setting, helping to assure quality and strengthen teamwork among healthcare professionals.”

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