346 Infectious Diseases And 7,316 Outbreaks Included In New Version Of GIDEON Online

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 25 Mar 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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GIDEON Informatics announced a new version of its web-based solution, with data on 346 infectious diseases, 7,316 outbreaks, 219 signs and symptoms and 80,000 medical notes. Providing comprehensive and accurate information on infectious diseases, GIDEON helps medical professionals worldwide improve the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.

"GIDEON is a very useful resource, providing decision support for generating a differential diagnosis. I use it for difficult-to-identify infectious disease patients with travel histories, clarify unusual disease patterns and help plan effective treatment," said Dr. Scott Smith, MD, Chief of Infectious Disease & Geographic Medicine, Kaiser Permanente Redwood City, CA and Adj Asst. Professor, Stanford University Medical School.

To assist medical professionals with diagnosis, GIDEON generates a ranked list of possible diseases based on signs, symptoms, laboratory tests and exposure history - for any infectious disease, in any country of the world. As an option, users can also simulate all possible Bioterrorism scenarios. An additional Microbiology module is designed to identify or study any of the more than 2,500 known human bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites.

GIDEON includes up-to-date information on all new diseases, outbreaks, antimicrobial agents, vaccines and pathogens; including recent outbreaks of cholera in Angola, Kenya, Somalia and Zambia and the latest on outbreaks of Avian Influenza. In addition, interactive screens present over 100,000 maps, graphs, individual outbreaks, epidemiological surveys and linked abstracts from the world literature.

Keeping up with new information on infectious diseases is a significant challenge for medical professionals. As of early 2008, there are 346 known generic infectious diseases worldwide, distributed across 220 countries. An average of three new diseases are discovered every two years, with a new infecting organism reported every week. Over 1,600 bacteria have been identified in humans, each with a specific set of chemical and drug-sensitivity characteristics which must be addressed by clinical laboratories and health professionals. These pathogens are challenged by 276 generic anti-infective drugs and 67 vaccines, marketed under 10,493 trade names.

"With new outbreaks of infectious diseases every day throughout the world, our easy-to-use Web-based database provides doctors with accurate and current information to better diagnose infectious diseases -and save lives," said Dr. Stephen Berger, MD, Co-founder and Medical Advisor for GIDEON Informatics. "With GIDEON, medical professionals can save time, increase accuracy and have the peace of mind that comes with knowing they have a powerful, reliable resource at their fingertips grounded in Evidence Based Medicine."

About GIDEON Informatics

GIDEON Informatics develops and markets point-of-care medical-decision support applications that help reduce diagnostic errors. Founded in 1992 by Uri Blackman and Stephen Berger, MD, one of the foremost experts on Infectious Disease, GIDEON Informatics is managed by an expert executive team and medical advisory board. Its comprehensive, easy-to-use, interactive Web-based infectious disease knowledge management tool helps medical personnel worldwide diagnose and treat infectious diseases, and identify microorganisms, including bioterrorism agents. GIDEON is in use by hundreds of medical institutions, universities and public health departments worldwide including Children's Hospital Oakland, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Disease Control (CDC), Yale University, Hong Kong University and the Los Angeles county health department.

GIDEON Informatics