Continually Updated Digital Guide to Antibiotics

A peer-reviewed database and a point-of-care decision-support system designed to give office and hospital-based doctors free and up-to-the-minute information on antibiotics can be used both with the Internet and with handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as Microsoft's PocketPC.

This ABX Guide was developed by scientists at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (Baltimore, MD, USA). Instead of carrying quickly outdated and limited paper versions of drug references, users of the ABX guide carry critically edited electronic versions that provide essential information on drug options and diagnostic criteria. Experts hand-picked by Hopkins continually make updates to reflect changes in the field. Emergency alerts, such as recalls by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), can be rushed to all users in an instant.

The guide offers information on more than 160 drugs and more than 140 diseases treated by both specialists and primary care doctors. It gives doctors who practice even in remote areas access to the same current diagnostic and treatment guidelines being followed at major medical institutions.

"We believe this guide and the technology on which it is based will rapidly advance evidence-based and outcomes-based medical care, and enrich medical education while addressing key concerns such as medication errors, delays in the incorporation of new developments into practice, and antibiotic resistance,” said John G. Barlett, M.D., chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins, who championed the project for Hopkins. Another guide, now in development, will cover treatments for HIV/AIDS.