1. pm2mail - Pubmed to Email K Brauchli 1, K Chanda 2, F Asah 3, F Oyabola 4 1 University of Basel, Switzerland 2 University of Lusaka, Zambia 3 University of Natal, South Africa 4 Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Nigeria Contact: kurt.brauchli@unibas.ch

2. The problem I Access to health information is becoming more and more difficult in developing countries. Example Zambia: once 250 journals in medical library, now 20. Example Cameroon: currently 0 subscribed journals !!! Current and relevant health information is more and more published in electronic form and online. Internet access in many developing countries is slow, expensive and there are few access points.

3. The problem II On-line Health Information is scattered over many sites. Example: search in Medline, fulltext articels on publishers websites. Online access to resources provided - e.g. WHO HINARI - often not possible due to technical restrictions.

4. Available Technology Most commonly available and usable technology is plain email. often faster than on-line access. often used in daily work. simple. Even implementable in remote areas: e.g. through VHF radio (EHAS in Peru, no power and no phone line) or satellite-email

5. Possible Solution ? Use existing technology. Provide access to current literature by email. provide single access point to literature search AND full text retrieval. --> Pubmed-to-Email

6. pm2mail Software: http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/pm2mail (open source, released under GPL) Test-server (WADN): http://ipath.krot.org/pm2mail Test email address: ipath-ref@krot.org

7. Access by Email to: ipath-ref@krot.org

8. Access by Email to: ipath-ref@krot.org Subject: PM

9. Access by Email to: ipath-ref@krot.org Subject: PM Query: Search Term Max: n

10. Result

11. Fulltext Access

14. Based on links to publisher sites provided through NLM linkout. journal specific rules for finding fulltext on link provided by linkout. (based on set of regex) basic retrieval as html stripped of images (small file size) optional retrieval as pdf. (with maximum file size check) Fulltext Access

15. The Website

16. Weekly Alerts

17. Further Plans for Website Personalised web page with list of current abstracts on selected topics. Tutorial for searching Pubmed by email. (Available through email) “query constructor using MeSH” (ev. with off-line version) Queries based on speciality of journal.

18. How to Set up pm2mail Set up pm2mail as single access point for the whole world. E.g. HINARI or Publishers

19. How to Set up pm2mail Set up pm2mail as single access point for the whole world. E.g. HINARI or Publishers --> YET ANOTHER ACCESS POINT !!!

20. How to Set up pm2mail Release pm2mail as tool to set up regional or specialty specific access point.

21. Tools to create local access points to Health Information Possibility to adapt to regional/specialty specific needs. Faster access to (local) on-line services. easier for admins to interact with and help their users. Creation of regional usergroups

22. Tools to create local access points to Health Information Examples: West African Doctors Network (WADN). Provides pm2mail server as part of their information services: http://www.wadn.org Healthnet Nepal wants to offer pm2mail as part of their integral access to health information for health professionals in Nepal: http://healthnet.org.np/pm2mail University of Zambia. Integrating pm2mail into the medical library's health information services (also off-line access for students).

23. current state Start: July 2002 first released: August 2002 usage: >1200 queries fulltext: BMJ & BMC only

24. next steps Increase the number of fulltext journals availble (e.g. through WHO HINARI) Improve documentation and user guides Improve support for users unfamiliar with PubMed.

25. Pm2mail Credits: Paul Fontelo, Francis George, Kirill Miazine, Gideon Chonia, Nabin Limbu Software: http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/pm2mail (open source - GPL) Test-server (WADN): http://ipath.krot.org/pm2mail Test email address: ipath-ref@krot.org Contact: kurt.brauchli@unibas.ch