Field of medicine: Infectious disease.

Format: World Wide Web site.

System requirements: Optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01 and Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above.

Audience: Infectious disease specialists, practitioners caring for patients with HIV infection, medical students, internal medicine house officers, and patients.

Purpose: To provide comprehensive information on HIV for treatment and educational purposes.

Content: The site includes Medical Management of HIV Infection by John Bartlett, MD, a comprehensive management manual describing the standards of care of the Johns Hopkins AIDS Service. It also includes the Hopkins HIV Report, a bimonthly newsletter of recent developments and practical reviews. Also accessible are treatment guidelines; epidemiology data; "Case Rounds," illustrated with high-resolution images of patient test results; descriptions of ongoing clinical studies at The Johns Hopkins Hospital; and self-assessment tests of knowledge about HIV. Visiting patients may post their questions to a forum, to be answered online by Johns Hopkins AIDS Service clinicians.

Usability: The interface is clean and attractive, with easy-to-find controls and simple, small graphics for quick navigation. The opening screen clearly displays the eight major topic areas; visitors may also consult a site map and perform a full-text search of a single resource (such as the textbook) or the entire site. The site's designers have effectively adapted printed information to the online environment; content is presented in manageable pieces and is enhanced with appropriate graphics. The "Case Rounds" graphics, for example, are displayed in a small format that users can enlarge for closer inspection.

Highlights: Centralized, online access to the textbook and newsletter make this authoritative, up-to-date site an invaluable resource for practitioners. Physicians may also gain insights into diagnosis and therapy by reading "Case Rounds" and by browsing through patient questions and the accompanying answers. The site includes topics less commonly covered elsewhere; for example, it provides an extensive review of outcomes research related to HIV infection and a section on managed care with a useful glossary of terms.

Limitations: The search engine does not answer specific clinical questions quickly enough for office use. A clinician looking up the side effects of a therapeutic agent might have to scan a dozen or more documents returned by the search engine to find the desired information. A searchable index would complement the full-text search by augmenting the speed of use and overall usefulness of the site.

Related sites: HIV InSite (http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/) offers similar clinician information supplemented with considerable patient-oriented information and sections on prevention, social issues, and clinical trials throughout the United States. The JAMA HIV/AIDS Information Center (http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/hivhome.htm) is one of several JAMA disease- and condition-specific Web offerings that combine breaking news, literature reviews, treatment guidelines, health policy material, and information on disease prevention.

Reviewers: Stephen J. Gluckman, MD, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Chris Dwyer, BA, American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.