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Dear Editors,
I would like to see you make this site more accessible to patients. In this year of 2003, many patients and their families want to be knowledgeable regarding diagnoses, treatments, and their health care in general. I would like to see a special rate for patients.

While I realize the journal articles, etc., might not be well understood by patients, I believe this site gives patients valuable information that can assist them in asking the right questions of their doctors, making sure their physicians are up to date, and help to improve their health care.

Thank you for your interest in my opinion.
Karyn Driessen, Patient 03 July 2003

Reply…

I'm sure that the website has a lot of information that may be of interest for patients and their carers. It is written and styled for health professionals - and therefore parts may not be easily understood by lay people. But, like going down to the local reference library to read the New England Journal of Medicine or British Medical Journal, we do not/cannot exclude the public. Indeed, lay people are eligible for a one-month free trial.

But then we reach the problem of charges - I'm afraid that it does cost a lot of money to develop and maintain such a large resource, and at the moment we are restricting free subscriptions to the developing world, and subsidized subscriptions to doctors in training. But what do others think?
Roy Pounder, Editor-in-Chief  03 July 2003

Dear Sirs,
It is a pleasure browsing through the site and publishing case reports and slides are a welcome addition.

Why not consider having a provision to submit endoscopic procedural videos (streaming, perhaps low resolution if technically difficult)? This would be especially useful to highlight the findings and techniques in motion and most importantly to focus on capsule endoscopy findings.

Some of the findings that we find in capsule endoscopy are difficult to appreciate in still pictures and hence problematic to publish. In any case the capsule video segments are surely below 1Mb and are easier to upload.
PVJ Sriram, Hyderabad, India  10 June 2003

Dear Sirs,
GastroHep.com is very informative and up to date, except the letters section!

I wish to make a suggestion. Would it be possible to start a section on interesting endoscopic videos?

These could be interesting cases or procedures in streaming format. In fact there are no online journals with videos in endoscopy except the VHJOE. We could submit you a few initial endoscopy videos for testing the feasibility. D Nageshwar Reddy, Hyderabad, India

Reply...

When we started GastroHep.com, one of our principles was that "there are no moving parts" - that is, the site must be easy to use, and should download quickly via a modem.

Keep collecting your clips! We want to share them!
Roy Pounder, Editor-in-Chief  10 June 2003

Dear Sir,
Your website is quite useful both for clinical and research purposes, the only boring bit is perhaps the 'Letters', section, which is replete with letters of excessive praise!

It seems that either there is nobody out there to offer a wee bit of criticism or such letters are intentionally shunted out.

I think in your website the papers and reviews from third world countries where, the bulk of basic Gastroenterological problems exists, are under-represented, for whatever reasons.

Also the turnover of reviews is a bit slow, but maybe that is because your site is still in the developmental stage.

Well good luck for such a useful undertaking - and do allow for a little bit of critical letters.
Imran Khan, Saudi Arabia  14 August 2002

Dear Sirs,
First of all, my gratitude to all the GastroHep.com staff for permitting me the access to such important information in the field of gastroenterology. I have been sponsored for one year, and I have to say it has been extremely important to me and widely interesting; thanks for my sponsorship, and thanks for everything . . .

I have learnt a lot and enriched my experience - though I still need to learn more and more.

For practitioners in developing countries, access to medical information in always costly and difficult to obtain: most of the time we have to download it and then get the information offline, because internet access is expensive . . .

I do not know if it would be possible for me to be sponsored for one more year. That would be great.

However, even if your response is negative, I still continue to thank you in the same way and with the same strength because GastroHep.com has helped me a lot.

Thank you Professor for the quality of the medical information in your website. You are participating actively, worldwide, in continuing postgraduate medical information.

Thanks again,
Joao Da Veiga, Thies, Senegal

Reply...

The GastroHep.com Scholarship scheme is continuing for another year, supported by the Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics Trust. Your subscription has been renewed, but other Scholars with a lapsed subscription should apply using the usual route .....
Roy Pounder, Editor-in-Chief  20 May 2002

Dear Sirs,
This is an extremely useful site, especially for us in Bulgaria!

The GastroHep.com Scholarship scheme means that we can afford to use the website.

I am an emergency endoscopist and I'm very excited by the content and quality of your site.
Victor Kamburov, Sofia, Bulgaria  11 April 2002

Dear Sirs,
This is really the most useful web site for Gastroenterologists I have ever visited. Thank you for the opportunity for me to use it, and please continue the good work.

Sincerely Yours,
Laimas Jonaitis, Kaunas, Lithuania  12 March 2002

Dear Sirs,

While browsing the letters section, I was interested to see a request for Gastrohep to allow downloads for handheld computers. There was a concern that the site would be too big to fit into a handheld's limited memory. I, however find that the news section would be what I would read most frequently. May I suggest a download would not be too large if it only consisted of 5 news items each day plus a single recent soapbox article. Possibly this could be available as an "Avant Go" channel for Palms and Pocket PCs.

Keep up the good work. In my view, Gastrohep is the most current and informative gastroenterology site when compared to the competition.

Best wishes,
Andy Li, London, UK

Reply...

Aside from the issue of 'what' type of content could best be viewed on a personal digital assistant (PDA) - i.e. news, the odd Soapbox, or the entire contents of the Conference Diary have all been considered by us - there is also the difficulty of choosing a common format?

If we can establish enough of a widespread demand from one or two common standards, then we would be happy to offer this type of content delivery in the future.
Webmaster  14 December 2001

Dear Sirs,
I have been a regular user of GastroHep.com for nearly a year now. In the beginning it was nice to get full access to journals like "Gastroenterology". But since I started to pay for your service you can sometimes get full text articles, but most of the time not? I don’t know the reason or the policy of this, but hopefully you can give me an answer.

Sincerely yours,
Dr. Martin Hoerner, Leiman, Germany

Reply...

Dear Dr Hoerner

Providing major journals online would cost much more than $100 pa - but we hope we already give you a quite useful site for your modest subscription.
Roy Pounder, Editor-in-Chief  08 August 2001

Dear Sirs,
Are you planning to have any programs that will allow subscribers to GastroHep.com to download content to their hand-held computers – i.e. Palm Pilots and their clones?
Urias Cuartas-Hoyos, Augusta, USA

Reply...

We have investigated this possibility - one of our problems is that there is such a large amount of information on the website, it would rapidly fill a small computer's memory.

Would our subscribers like to receive the latest news stories and perhaps the Soapbox lectures - please write and tell us!
Roy Pounder, Editor-in-Chief  24 July 2001

Dear Sirs,
A fantastic site! Keep up the good work.
Pradip Singh, Stafford, UK  26 June 2001

Dear Sirs,
I just wondered if you are going to publish the types of people who have registered with GastroHep.com from the registration page, e.g. nurses? I find the articles remain of high quality, are easily assimilated, and the humour makes it an enjoyable site to visit.

Best wishes,
Brenda Dunn, Matamata, New Zealand  21 May 2001

Dear Sirs,
First of all, I would like to congratulate everyone involved at GastroHep.com for the scholarship program that lets me go on learning with your site.

As a regular GastroHep.com visitor, I have enjoyed the former PDF releases of Peter Cotton's Practical GI Endoscopy very much. However, I am now a little bit concerned about the unavailability of this useful format in that book, and in the selected chapters of Sheila Sherlock's Diseases of the Liver and Biliary System.

I wonder what the reasons for this impoverishment in this otherwise excellent web site of yours are, and ask whether we will see these PDFs again in the near future?

I thank you in advance, with best regards,
Ariel Ingver, Montevideo, Uruguay

First of all let me say how pleased I am to hear how GastroHep.com is helping to facilitate your continuing medical education, as this has always been one of the major goals of the site.

To answer your question, the reason why there are no PDF downloads available for Diseases of the Liver and Biliary System is simply because this book is not yet in print and so, no PDF files currently exist. However, you will be pleased to hear that as soon as the book does go in to print later this summer these PDFs should be available to us. When this happens we will add these along with those for Peter Cotton's Practical GI Endoscopy.
Webmaster  11 May 2001

Dear Sirs,
Thank you very much for providing me free access to GastroHep.com through your Scholarship program. I am a surgeon in training from Romania and my annual income is quite small. I am also a doctor, and in General Surgery, and I have found some very useful information for my subject (pancreatic cancer) on your site.

With best regards,
Daniel Timofte, Iasi, Romania  28 March 2001

Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your offer of a free Scholarship for one year. GastroHep.com is extremely informative, and I very much hope that the knowledge gained from your web site will greatly improve gastrointestinal health care in Burma.

Regards,
Tin Tun, Yangon, Myanmar  27 March 2001

Dear Sirs,
Well done, at last a medical web site which must have taken an immense amount of research and effort. I do hope that you can develop this so that the need to use multiple sites can be minimised.

Keep up the good work.
Hugh Shepherd, Southampton, UK  26 March 2001

Dear Sirs,
I am delighted to receive a Scholarship from GastroHep.com, and would like to express my appreciation for your teams efforts, and for the wonderful contents of the site.

Thank you once again.
Sadiq Sikora, Lucknow, India  22 March 2001

Dear Sirs,
Many thanks for your invaluable help in allowing me to become a GastroHep.com Scholar!

GastroHep.com is the best organized and up-to-date web site in the field of gastroenterology, and I am now delighted to be able to visit your site regularly. It enables me to remain well informed, and also allows me to spread news to my colleagues.

Many thanks for the sponsorship again!

Yours sincerely,
B. Velosy, Szeged, Hungary  21 March 2001

I am a Paraguayan gastroenterologist. I want you to know that your web site is excellent, and to pass on congratulations to all your team.
José Sardi, Asuncion, Paraguay  20 March 2001

Dear Professor Pounder,
Just to let you know that I have tried many of the fabulous resources at GastroHep.com. It is my favourite medical website (and not biased).

I particularly enjoy the gastro-profiles of the Editors and the Global Faculty! It is nice to know my academics and mentors on a personal level. I never knew that my Professor (Nick Talley) wanted a Porsche Boxster!

The news stories that GastroHep.com reports each day are the first thing I look at when I get online each day. The Conference Diary is excellent; I have not seen any more detailed than those presented at GastroHep.com on any other medical website. The Bookshop is also a wonderful idea, I love keeping up-to-date with the latest Gastro-books especially on Helicobacter pylori infection.
Guy D. Eslick, Sydney, Australia  13 March 2001

Dear Sirs,
GastroHep.com is by far the tops in medical websites. It is comprehensive, accurate, up-to-date and invaluable.
Ralph Myerson, Pennsylvania, USA  22 January 2001

Dear Sirs,
I can't go one day without consulting GastroHep.com. It is of unique help to my every day practice. Your information is up-to-date, and we can read all the latest developments in Gastroenterology. Our profession is better than before you were on the web.

Yours truly,
Guido Marini, Grosseto, Italy  03 January 2001

Dear Sirs,
I love this web site. It is excellent for gastroenterologists, and provides a wonderful in-service training programme.

Thank you very much everybody, and congratulations!
Vedat Goral, Diyarbakir, Turkey  07 December 2000

Dear Sirs,
A great Crohn's case written by Jo Puleston. I tried to find the follow-through to show the strictures, but to no avail. So was reduced to spending large amounts of dollars on other useless investigations!

I would not have made a decision on ileal resection until I had inspected the ileum and considered stricturoplasty. Provided a couple of cm of distal ileum are normal, a stricturoplasty should always be considered. Your patient is rather young to lose his terminal ileum - and this is a surgeon speaking!
Peter Devitt, Adelaide, Australia

Reply...

Thank you for the compliments about the case. Obviously, this was our first attempt using the technology, and it promises to be a really excellent way of presenting clinical problems.

I think the problem with the barium follow-through X-ray result, was that you were too impatient. The technology reproduces real life - you have to wait for some tests, like a follow-through! Hence you were given the immediate results, and then had to make some decisions whilst the slower tests are awaited. The barium follow-through can be reviewed on later screens - an elegant photo taken by me.

We're always delighted to meet a conservative surgeon - but the stricture was considered too long for a strictureplasty by a very experienced IBD surgeon.
Roy Pounder, Editor-in-Chief  17 November 2000

Dear Sirs,
You have made a gastrohepaholic out of me. The first thing I do every morning when I come to my hospital, is to switch on my computer and log-on to GastroHep.com.

To be serious, it is a big event for us gastroenterologists to have this site on the internet. Thank you for that.
Bernhard H Jaup, Seffle, Sweden  10 November 2000

Dear Sirs
I would like to congratulate and commend you on the first class web site you have created. Since learning of GastroHep.com. I have tried to faithfully log in every day to try to get a handle on what is happening around the world in the ever-developing field of Gastroenterology.

There is just so much happening throughout the world within the realm of gastroenterology and hepatology that I am hard pressed to find the time, and quite frankly the money, to spend on aimlessly searching for the newest developments. GastroHep.com is outstanding because it brings the experts and the latest news and discoveries to its followers in a cogent, intelligent and educational manner. My GastroHep.com mouse mat sits proudly on my desktop, an ever-constant companion and reminder to log on and learn all that I can about gastroenterology and hepatology.

Thank you!
Dave Flanagan, Scituate, USA  30 October 2000

Dear Sirs,
I've got a problem. I have become addicted to GastroHep.com. Every day, as soon as I turn my computer on I can't resist it: I must reach your website immediately to read the latest update. If other commitments prevent me from doing so my hands sweat, my head starts spinning, my heart beat speeds up.

I can't live without GastroHep.com! What can I do?
Mario Guslandi, Milan, Italy  27 October 2000

Dear Sirs,
I enjoyed Glen Lutchman's letter (29 Sept 2000) on the GI training position. In particular, in choosing an advanced post GI fellowship position, i.e. will the potential unit meet the specific needs of a candidate seeking a particular area of interest.

A site visit may help but may not be geographically possible for many. The exchange of email between fellows in training may help (e.g. how hands on will one get in doing ERCP, interventional ultraendosonography), but equally important is the model example and the science set by a good mentor in the thinking process, because the mindset of some trainees then is to get lots of cutting experience first. An advertised post is devoid of such information, but can a website like, GastroHep.com be the site of introduction of exchange of information that eventually leads to a happy good "matching program"? A good choice of mentor is worth the effort for it can be a very enjoyable experience of a lifetime.

I am enjoying the Soapbox section, for Peter Cotton and others continue to challenge us and our mindset.

Congratulations GastroHep.com!
Shao Loong Yin  09 October 2000

Dear Sirs,
I was very interested that you highlighted in your News Section the meta analysis of chemotherapy for colorectal cancer, in the palliative care setting. The analysis, in effect, showed that a minority of patients objectively respond, and that effects on quality of life needs to be carefully assessed (Palliative Chemotherapy for Advanced Colorectal Cancer: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Colorectal Cancer Collaborative Group BMJ 2000; 321:531-5)

I was surprised at the conclusions reached by the accompanying editorial in the BMJ, which suggested that chemotherapy was of benefit in the palliative setting (M. Michael and JR Zalcberg) Especially, as the review clearly stated, "The overall quality of evidence relating to treatment toxicity, symptom control, and quality of life was poor".

I feel that unfortunately there is no evidence to support the use of palliative chemotherapy out of trial settings, where its toxicity and impact on quality of life can be assessed objectively.

Yours sincerely,
David Aldulaimi, Warwick, England  03 October 2000

Dear Sirs,
I'm sure you are getting tired of hearing that you have done a great job putting this together.

Thanks!
Alan Bank, Boca Raton, USA  03 October 2000

Dear Sirs,
I was quite fortunate on opening the October 2000 edition of Gut to have a news bulletin about your website fall out. I am very impressed with the format and content of your website. As a third year resident seeking a Fellowship in Gastroenterology, I would find it very useful if there was a sub-section dealing with available training positions. Considering the international nature of this website, it would provide a perfect forum for prospective Fellowship candidates to locate the training position most suited to their goals.

Sincerely,
Glen Lutchman  29 September 2000

Dear Sirs,
I would like to congratulate you on the GastroHep.com. For a clinical research fellow it is incredibly useful to get access to journals and other informative information, some not available locally. It also saves delays and costs of multiple interlibrary loan requests.

Thank you once again.

Yours faithfully,
Christopher L. Sheen, Dundee, Scotland  19 September 2000

Dear Sirs,
I would like to express my thanks for this website. For us gastroenterologists from the former "East Europe", all the new education sources are very important. I will recommend your site to my colleagues.

I wish you lots of success.

Yours truly,
Alice Sekanová  13 September 2000

Dear Sirs,
On behalf of all the European Gastroenterologists I have the honour to represent (and personally too), this is just to express our thanks for creating this website. Your idea is very stimulating, and I am confident that it will be a success in the near future.
Vincent Lamy, Charleroi, Belgium  05 September 2000

Dear Sirs,
I am most impressed with your new web-based information service. The ability to get up-to-date information and all the latest developments in our specialty at the touch of a mouse is quite incredible.

Congratulations on a first class effort to all concerned.

Yours truly,
Bill Griffiths, Cambridge, UK  18 August 2000