Cited by the Carnegie Commission in 1970 and again in 1976 as the model system for rural health care in the United States, The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, known regionally as Bassett Healthcare (BH), serves a sparsely-populated, geographically-isolated region in central New York State. As an academic medical system, Bassett Healthcare is formally affiliated with Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons. Bassett Healthcare consists of a central medical center with an acute care hospital and a large outpatient clinic offering a wide range of general and specialty care, and 20 outreach clinics. With a salaried doctoral staff in a closed practice model, Bassett attracts medical students and postgraduate physicians from all parts of the nation to participate in the medical and surgical training programs. Other training programs are offered in nursing, pharmacy, health care administration and other allied health fields. Research programs dealing with basic disease mechanisms are centered in the Bassett Research Institute. With the exponential growth of information available Bassett practitioners, researchers, teachers and students are overwhelmed with the choices offered. Timely access to relevant information is essential for Bassett to remain an effective and progressive rural medical center. This application for Internet access to Digital Libraries will provide more relevant, more timely and more user-friendly information to our health care practitioners, researchers, students and teachers using a knowledge-based filter to create a personalized information environment. Developing a personalized information environment will 1) filter the glut of information available putting more relevant information on the desktop 2) increase use of available resources through targeted training and marketing 3) allow timely information updates relevant to a user's specialty and/or interests 4) continue Bassett Healthcare's development as a state and national model of a rural health care systems for the 21 st century.
