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<article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="abstract" dtd-version="2.0">
    <front>
        <journal-meta>
            <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JMIR</journal-id>
            <journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">J Med Internet Res</journal-id>
            <journal-title>Journal of Medical Internet Research</journal-title>
            <issn pub-type="epub">1438-8871</issn>
            <publisher>
                <publisher-name>Gunther Eysenbach</publisher-name>
                <publisher-loc>Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, Toronto, Canada</publisher-loc>
            </publisher>
        </journal-meta>
        <article-meta>
            <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">v1isuppl1e17</article-id>
            <article-id pub-id-type="pmid" />
            <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.2196/jmir.1.suppl1.e17</article-id>
            <article-categories>
                <subj-group subj-group-type="article-type">
                    <subject>Abstract</subject>
                </subj-group>
            </article-categories>
            <title-group>
                <article-title>COM4/392: In Vitro Diagnostic Net: Virtual community and marketplace of laboratory medicine</article-title>
            </title-group>
            <contrib-group>
                <contrib contrib-type="author" id="contrib1" xlink:type="simple">
                    <name name-style="western">
                        <surname>Dressel</surname>
                        <given-names>M</given-names>
                    </name>
                    <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref>
                </contrib>
            </contrib-group>
            <aff id="aff1" rid="aff1"><sup>1</sup>
                <addr-line>IVD-net GmbH, Freital</addr-line>
                <country>Germany</country>
            </aff>
            <pub-date pub-type="collection">
                <season>Jul-Sep</season>
                <year>1999</year>
            </pub-date>
            <pub-date pub-type="epub">
                <day>19</day>
                <month>9</month>
                <year>1999</year>
            </pub-date>
            <volume>1</volume>
            <issue>suppl1</issue>
            <elocation-id>e17</elocation-id>
            <copyright-statement>Except where otherwise noted, articles published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</copyright-statement>
            <copyright-year>1999</copyright-year>
            <self-uri xlink:href="http://www.jmir.org/1999/suppl1/e17/" xlink:type="simple" />
            <abstract>
                <sec sec-type="introduction">
                    <title>Introduction</title>
                    <p>Using the Internet for laboratory needs to quickly retrieve information, such as special parameters, addresses, market news &#38; innovations or a product's manual, is time-consuming. There exist already numerous Web sites and their number is ever-increasing. But does the useful information presented in these sites always reach the desired target group? Evidence shows that this has not happened, so far. IVD-net has identified this problem and devoted a good deal of effort to resolving it, over the last year. As an alternative to time-consuming searches in a large number of sources, IVD-net offers a centralized, firmly established Internet forum devoted to in vitro diagnostics.</p>
                </sec>
                <sec sec-type="methods">
                    <title>Methods</title>
                    <p>IVD-net intends to be a guiding compass in the "jungle" of Web-pages dealing with laboratory medicine. This guidance is being created in a virtual community of specialists and interested people this field. It is the community of people connected by a common interest in in-vitro diagnostics. In this community, step-by-step, a network of knowledge and experiences is created, where each member can benefit from. IVD-net is authentic; there is no contribution without reference to the original source.</p>
                </sec>
                <sec sec-type="results">
                    <title>Results</title>
                    <p>Structure of IVD-Web-sites:</p>
                    <list list-type="bullet">
                        <list-item>
                            <p>German and English languages.</p>
                        </list-item>
                        <list-item>
                            <p>"public" pages for welcome and orientation.</p>
                        </list-item>
                        <list-item>
                            <p>interactive "members'" pages for registered members.</p>
                        </list-item>
                    </list>
                    <p>Membership is free of charge. Members pages consist of:</p>
                    <list list-type="bullet">
                        <list-item>
                            <p>News: daily new information and scientific events.</p>
                        </list-item>
                        <list-item>
                            <p>News Group: the bulletin board for your questions, answers, comments, information.</p>
                        </list-item>
                        <list-item>
                            <p>Addresses : list of addresses and/or home pages of important partners in laboratory medicine directly linked to their URL.</p>
                        </list-item>
                        <list-item>
                            <p>Archives: thematically arranged &#38; handy for research.</p>
                        </list-item>
                        <list-item>
                            <p>Hardware and Software: marketplace of instrumentation and a software catalogue. This is a virtual catalogue with efficient search functions, direct ordering options and attractive special offers of alternative suppliers!</p>
                        </list-item>
                    </list>
                </sec>
                <sec sec-type="discussion">
                    <title>Discussion</title>
                    <p>Economic globalization and increasing pressure to reduce costs in public health systems bring up a great challenge; the one of finding new solutions.</p>
                </sec>
            </abstract>
            <kwd-group>
                <kwd>In-vitro Diagnostic, Laboratory Techniques and Procedures</kwd>
            </kwd-group>
        </article-meta>
    </front>
</article>
