McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing Selects Silverchair Science+Communications to Develop the New Release of AccessMedicine

McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing, a unit of McGraw-Hill Professional, is a leading publisher of professional health references and databases for physicians and medical students, and Silverchair Science+Communications, a leading developer of health reference information solutions for health care publishers, today announced that Silverchair will lead the redevelopment of McGraw-Hill's flagship web-based medical product, AccessMedicine. AccessMedicine delivers gold-standard medical information online (including Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, CURRENT Medical Diagnosis & Treatment, and the renowned LANGE series of basic and clinical science subspecialty references) to physicians, medical students, and researchers worldwide.

The move represents a major expansion of their multi-year agreement to power the next generation of McGraw-Hill's best-selling clinical and educational references for the Web through Silverchair Content Manager™(SCM) -- Silverchair's semantic Web platform for clinical references. SCM exponentially improves the precision with which physicians can find mission-critical information to support patient care, substantially reducing the time it takes to locate critical answers.

"Working with Silverchair, we'll deliver the new release of AccessMedicine.com in November 2004 providing users with a complete clinical and educational digital resource," said Jack Farrell, vice president and publisher of Online and Digital Products for McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing. "Using this unique semantics-driven platform, we're now moving beyond today's 'online books' model and instead providing information applications that are far more powerful and useful than the current generation of web-delivered medical references. In addition, AccessMedicine will showcase some important features that our users have been asking for -- namely, a self-assessment component, customization, and the ability to download content to their PDA. It's an exciting package."

"Physicians today require much more from publishers than ever before," said Thane Kerner, president and CEO of Silverchair. "They demand quality information from the best sources, like Harrison's, and they must be able to access it quickly and intuitively. Semantic web technology allows us to deliver updated clinical knowledge with an unprecedented level of speed, accuracy, and ease-of-use."

About McGraw-Hill

McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing is part of McGraw-Hill Professional, a leading global provider of general interest, business, multimedia and computer titles, and reference works that include materials for the scientific, technical and medical communities. It is a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek. Founded in 1888, the Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2003 were $4.8 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.

About Silverchair

Silverchair Science+Communications, Inc. is an editorial technology company specializing in the development of advanced medical information products. Founded in 1993, Silverchair has been a leader in developing digital publishing platforms and content specifically for health care professionals. It maintains offices in Charlottesville, VA, Philadelphia, and Raleigh, NC. Additional information is available at http://www.silverchair.com/.

SOURCE: McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing

CONTACT: April Hattori
McGraw-Hill Education
(212) 904-2078
april_hattori@mcgraw-hill.com
Elizabeth Willingham
Silverchair
(434) 296-6333 x240
elizabethw@silverchair.com

Web site: http://www.mheducation.com/
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/
http://www.silverchair.com/